


Shadows and Flames

by Araloth



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, M/M, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secrets, Slow Build Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-05-23 03:24:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14926181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Araloth/pseuds/Araloth
Summary: In a world without werewolves the Hale fire still happens but later.Stiles is out for dinner with his father when they get the call. The Hale house is on fire-bringing Derek Hale-a star from some of his earliest teenage fantasies back into his life in a way he never imagined. Now confronted with disturbing evidence, Stiles will take on the task to uncover the truth of why the fire really happened and what secrets it may have been meant to hide...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea for this AU early at work this morning, and this first chapter was kind of a proof of concept for me. I've never written Sterek before, but I do really enjoy it, and when this occurred to me I just had to write some of it out. So let me know if this little bit seems intriguing and if you'd like to see more.
> 
> Also I've played around with everyone's ages a bit to make the story work the way I want it too. Stiles is sixteen here and Derek is twenty. I'll make a point to note any other character's ages as they get added, though most should stay the same. The only other ones I would probably change is just to age up the Liam, Brett, Mason crowd a bit if or when they came into play

            “Here.” Stiles pulled the squad car’s door shut behind him and grabbed a foil wrapped sandwich from the grease soaked bag he was carrying. “Bon appetite.”

            “Hey wait a second-“ The Sheriff grumbled as he unwrapped the foil. “I asked for a bacon cheeseburger…”

            “Yeah I know.” Stiles smiled innocently around a mouthful of fries.

            “Stiles-“ The Sheriff pulled back the bun of his burger, showing a very bare patty, with some lettuce and tomatoes. “-this doesn’t have bacon _or_ cheese.”

            Stiles shrugged. “Well tonight we’re eating healthier.” He grabbed another handful of fries from the bag. “Relatively speaking.”

            “Give me some of those…”

            “Get your own.” Stiles swatted his dad’s hand away from the bag, shoveling another helping of fires down his throat.

            The Sheriff groaned and took a reluctant bite of his burger. “If I did they’d disappear with my bacon and cheese…”

            “Just trying to make sure you make it to a nice ripe old age…”

            The Sheriff grabbed a fry from Stiles hand, taking a bite with a triumphant smile.

            “Hey!” Stiles squawked in protest.

            His father just shook his head waving around the half eaten fry like a pointer. “You know-someday someone’s going to make _you_ eat this kind of healthy crap and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

            “Never gonna happen.” Stiles sneered with a smile.

            The Sheriff laughed. “You say that now. Just wait-“

            The police radio on the dashboard crackled hesitantly to life. “Sheriff?”

            Stiles frowned watching as his dad set down his food to reach for the microphone. He was still on duty, but the deputies back at the station knew he was grabbing a late dinner with Stiles.

            “Go ahead Tara.”

            “We’ve got a call about a disturbance at the Hale house. Derek Hale called in-“

            “ _Derek_ Hale?” Stiles grinned, but fell silent again when his father waved for him to be quiet. Derek Hale had been three years above Stiles in school and the very definition of tall, dark and handsome. He’d also been hopelessly unobtainable-and of course Stiles’ first real crush. Stiles had attended almost every varsity basketball game while he was still in middle school for the chance to see Derek play. Stiles had never really cared much about basketball itself, but Derek was a natural athlete and the star of the team-and the look of his ass in those athletic shorts was so good it should have been illegal. The image had a leading role in more of Stiles’ early fantasies then he could count, and had been one of the biggest factors in discovering his quickly blossoming bisexuality. The picture of a sweaty perfectly muscled Derek on the basketball court had been second only to the smile he’d get after he won a game. After Derek had graduated Stiles had quickly lost interest in the sport-and boy had explaining the logic behind _that_ change to his dad been fun. Stiles upon entering high school had transitioned his yearning affections to the almost as pretty, and sadly equally unobtainable Lydia Martin, and Derek had gone to some fancy private college an hour or so away. As far as Stiles knew Derek was still enrolled there, which made his being here in Beacon Hills, the night of some disturbance at his home, a little strange.

            “What’s he saying happened?” The Sheriff asked.

            “Something about a fire…” Tara said hesitating a moment as she checked the calls transcript. “-he was pretty hard to make out. A lot of wind and background noise. Fire and EMS are on their way but you’re the closest unit we’ve got.”

            The Hales, being easily the richest family in Beacon Hills, lived almost in the middle of the local nature preserve. The Beacon Hills preserve itself had once belonged to some Hale ancestor or other, before the family had made the decision to donate all but the few dozen acres their palatial estate was on to the community, letting all of Beacon Hills enjoy some of the untouched California wilderness. The Hale’s house itself was massive, though from some of the county records Stiles had seen he knew they’d actually downsized over the centuries as needs changed. Still the location of the mansion made getting to it a little more difficult then the average house call. While the preserve butted up against houses and some major roads in parts of town, the single road leading to the Hale house was located at the very edge of Beacon Hills-which just happened to be near the burger joint Stiles and his father were parked at. Stiles looked to his dad eagerly.

            The Sheriff sighed and turned his keys, the squad car kicking to life with a low rumble. He glared pointedly at Stiles. “You’re staying _in_ the car.”

            Stiles grinned. “No problem.”

            The Sherriff was unconvinced. “Stiles-“

            “Yeah-yeah dad I get it.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “I’ll behave.”

            The Sheriff let out a short bark of laughter as they pulled out of the dinner’s parking lot, the neon signs winking in the rearview mirror. “I doubt that…”

***

            The forest was dark around them as they drove. His dad had his sirens on, and in the distance Stiles thought he could hear the echo of them from the fire truck and ambulance he knew were coming. A deer nearly jumped out in front of them at one point before being scared off as the Sheriff slammed the horn. Stiles wasn’t sure what to expect. He’d only been to the Hale house once or twice for big Christmas parties Talia Hale had thrown. Talia Hale had been the District Attorney in Beacon Hills for years, and every so often she’d host a gathering for other lawyers from the courthouse and the sheriff and deputies who helped them enforce the law. From what Stiles had seen of the house apparently being a DA paid _much_ better than being a sheriff. The last time he had been there the house had been filled with people all in fancy suits and dresses and still the halls had room to spare. The whole place had seemed covered in fancy and easily breakable art, and half the food they had served Stiles had never even heard of. Stiles had only been probably twelve at the time, and hadn’t worn anything fancier than a shirt with a collar and a pair of nice khakis. His dad had just come in his sheriff’s uniform. Stiles could recall getting more than a few snobby looks from other guests, though not from any of the Hales themselves. Whenever his dad spoke of Talia Hale it was always positive, something that couldn’t be said of half the people the Sheriff had to interact with on a daily basis.

            The call was probably a waste when Stiles really thought about it-he was sure people as rich as the Hales probably had their own sprinkler system and were insured to the tee. The most they probably had to worry about was a little water damage. Still, maybe Stiles would get lucky and catch a glimpse of Derek. He bet college had been good to him…

            What Stiles hadn’t expected was the ruddy orange glow he could make out before they even took the final twisted curve of road that would bring them into view of the Hale house.

            “Dad-“

            The Sheriff looked grim, and Stiles could feel the car jump under him a little as his dad accelerated further. “I know…”

            The sheer brightness of the blaze as they rounded the final bend forced Stiles to throw a hand up to shield his eyes. The house wasn’t just on fire-it was _engulfed_. Red-orange tongues of flame licked up the walls, racing over the mansion and leeching the bright white of its paint to darker grays and blacks. Most of the windows had already broken, the glass shattering in the heat, and Stiles could hear the whole mansion groan as the roof in one corner sagged a few feet. By the time Stiles tore his gaze away from the fire his dad was already leaping out the door.

            “Stay in the car!”

            For once Stiles listened, too shocked by the devastation before him to argue. He caught sight of a familiar black Camero a few yards closer to the house. For a moment Stiles thought he heard what could have been a scream and shuddered. He was trying to convince himself it must have just been the fire cracking when his mind caught up to what was missing. _The Hales…_ Nowhere on the lawn did Stiles see any sign of the family. None of them…

            _They have to have gotten out…_ Stiles’ brain was racing now with mounting horror. _They must just be in back or-_

His father reappeared suddenly from around the side of the house dragging someone behind him, his jacket off and beating at the other man’s chest and arms. Stiles threw open his door and ran to meet them. His father all but shoved the taller man into Stiles. Stiles had no idea how he did it until he caught sight of him. _Derek…_

            “Get him back!” The Sheriff shouted as the sirens blaring grew louder and the fire truck and ambulance finally- _finally-_ made it into the clearing.

            Stiles wandered back towards the car as his father raced off to talk to the other first responders, dragging Derek with him. His father’s jacket was wrapped around Derek’s right arm, the little skin underneath Stiles could see was red and inflamed. On the back of Derek’s shoulders there were small pockmarks where falling ash had burned through the fabric. _He tried to go in…_ Stiles realized suddenly. Apart from the superficial burns he seemed physically fine-Stiles glanced back to the house and knew-there was no way Derek had been inside and came out so unscathed. Derek followed Stiles' eyes back to the house-his house- Stiles reminded himself, and any fight he’d had left against Stiles pulling him back seemed to snuff out. The look in his eyes was haunting, a vacant hopeless stare even as firefighters rushed into the house.

            A wave of guilt rushed through Stiles as some distant part of him appreciated the view of Derek in profile, taking in the short well cropped bread he’d apparently started growing.

            The firefighters still on the truck let lose with their hoses, spraying not just the house but parts of the surrounding forest as well. The last few months of summer had been hot and dry, leading into an even more arid fall-if a few trees were to catch from the fire in the Hale house the whole forest could go up in smoke before they got it back under control again threatening even more homes.

            Stiles searched desperately for something to say as Derek watched his childhood home burn to ash in front of him.

            “I-I’m sure they’ll find them.” Stiles swallowed fighting to keep his voice even. “They’ll get your family out…”

            Derek turned to Stiles, and the minute Stiles met Derek’s eyes he felt it. Derek knew. Whatever the firefighters manages to salvage it wouldn’t be his family.

            There wouldn’t be any survivors…

***

            In the end it turned out the fear Stiles had read in Derek’s eyes had been wrong. One of his uncles was pulled out of the fire. Paramedics were able to rush him to the hospital in time to keep him alive, but with second and third degree burns over most of his body he’d been placed in a medically induced coma to try and help him heal. If he made any kind of recovery it would be a small miracle. Derek’s younger sister-Cora-hadn’t ever been in the fire, still safely tucked away in a private school exchange program in South America.

            But that was the end of the good news-both Derek’s parents, his older sister Laura, and several other aunts, uncles and cousins had all died in the fire. Derek hadn’t said a word since they found him, barely making any noise at all as the paramedics tended to his hand and he rode with Stiles and his father for the long drive back to the Sheriff’s station. They would need to get Derek’s official statement for the record. And after that there was the morgue- gruesome as it was the coroner would need Derek to identify those members of his family who were still recognizable.

            Stiles hadn’t been allowed in his father’s office while he’d spoken to Derek, parking himself instead on a bench just outside it, but he’d been able to piece together the story from listening to the other deputies on duty. Apparently Derek had been coming home to visit-his university was on break for the next two weeks. Derek had gotten back to his house maybe five minutes before Stiles and his father, and called 9-1-1 immediately. He’d burned his hand trying to force his way into a side door of the house as Stiles had suspected, which had been where the Sheriff had found him when they’d arrived.

            His dad had left Derek alone in his office when he’d come out to confer with a few of his deputies, talking in careful whispers about what they needed to do next. The office had blinds but his dad had neglected to pull them down all the way, giving Stiles a small crack through which he could watch Derek if he leaned forward far enough. Tara was still on dispatch and glared at Stiles pointedly, no doubt knowing what he was up to. He managed a small smile, and while Tara didn’t seem to appreciate it she didn’t say anything to his dad either, turning back to the radio and pile of paper work in front of her. From what Stiles could make out it looked like Derek was watching something on his phone. His back was to Stiles, his shoulders hunched up in his holey t-shirt, and his head bowed forward. Stiles couldn’t hear anything through the glass but from the small motions on the screen he gathered it must be a video of some kind. His chest ached more than a little at the idea of Derek watching some old family video or other all alone.

            The Sheriff finally reappeared, and Stiles bolted up right as subtly as he could-which admittedly wasn’t much- not wanting his father to catch him intruding on what was almost certainly a private moment. His father paused before opening his office door, taking a moment to give Stiles a small smile and squeeze his shoulder a little too tightly. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t really have to. Stiles had been thinking the same thing. Losing his mother had been hard enough…he didn’t know how he would have coped if he’d lost his dad too. His dad finally sniffed awkwardly and knocked softly on his own office door before slowly swinging it open. Whatever Derek had been watching on his phone he stopped the minute he saw the Sheriff.

            “You’re uh-you’re free to go son.”

            Stiles frowned. His dad must have somehow convinced the coroner to wait a day on the identifications. Stiles couldn’t imagine them liking that, but judging by the state Derek seemed to be in his dad had probably made the right call.

            “Do you uh-do you have somewhere you can stay tonight?” The Sheriff asked uncomfortably.

            Derek made a move for his right pocket as if to pull out his wallet only to seem to realize it wasn’t there. Stiles grimaced. Derek must have dropped it somewhere at his house in the commotion-well his _lot_ really, Stiles mentally corrected himself, what was left could hardly be called a house. Honestly most of the local hotels would probably still have offered Derek a room even if he currently lacked the means to pay for it, everyone in town knew the Hales had money, and could likely count on Derek as good for it as soon as he was able to stop by a bank. But looking at his dad Stiles knew that wasn’t going to happen.

            The Sheriff coughed. “You-uh you can have our guest room until we find you something a little more permanent…”

            Derek just stared at him blankly, and for a minute Stiles seriously questioned whether in whatever stupor he’d slipped into he’d understood-but then he nodded once. “Thank you.”

            His voice was so low Stiles almost thought he’d imagined it, but then his father was nodding too. “It’s the least we can do…” He waved a hand in the general direction of the station’s garage. “C’mon…”

            When they got to the car his dad slid behind the wheel naturally, and Stiles made to offer the passenger seat to Derek but he slid into the back seat without so much as a second glance. Stiles caught his dad’s eye and shrugged slightly before climbing in front next to him. He glanced back at Derek from the corner of the rear view mirror as his dad put the car in gear. He had his phone out again. Whatever he was looking at had no sound this time that Stiles could detect, though he supposed Derek could have just muted it…

            The drive home from the station was silent. It was becoming a recurring thing between them Stiles realized, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked this little in one night. But really what did you say to someone’s who’s whole life had just been gutted? It gets better? It might take months or years but eventually you’ll be able to get through a day without the pain of losing someone you love feeling so constant it’s like it’s melting away your insides? Stiles’ mom’s face came to his mind unbidden. There was no joke, no easy words or reassurances to ease that kind of pain. You just had to learn to live with it…

            They showed Derek to the guest bedroom, and Stiles pulled out clean sheets for the bed while his dad pointed out the bathroom and told Derek he was welcome to anything he might want from the fridge. Derek just nodded, his phone still clutched firmly in hand. Stiles had thought to offer Derek some of his old clothes to use as pajamas but immediately dismissed the idea as the fool’s errand it was. Derek was roughly a head taller and far more muscular than Stiles would ever be. Nothing he owned would fit him. In the end his dad pulled out an old worn pair of shorts and a t-shirt for Derek to wear. Derek’s own clothes had soot smeared across them and more then a few small holes burned into them. They reeked of smoke in what Stiles could only imagine was a constant reminder of tonight’s horrors for him. If Derek thought anything ill of the accommodations he didn’t say it. Satisfied he would be okay for the moment, Stiles and the Sheriff let him settle in and retreated to the kitchen.

            “Kiddo...” The Sheriff shook his head. “You know I love you right?”

            Stiles nodded and quickly closed the gap between them pulling his dad into a tight hug. “I know dad. I love you too…” Saying those words had never felt like such a blessing than when faced with the reality of never being able to again.

            “Ah…” the Sheriff sniffed and smiled weakly. “You should probably be getting to bed too. You still have school tomorrow.”

            It seemed especially trivial in light of everything that had happened that night. But Stiles just nodded. “Goodnight dad.”

            “Night.”

            Stiles changed into a loose t-shirt and a pair of sleep pants and padded quietly across the hall to the bathroom. He passed the closed door of the guest bedroom on the way. He was brushing his teeth in the dim light of the bathroom when he noticed it. Derek had left his phone on the counter. And it was unlocked… Stiles looked over his shoulder confirming the guest bedroom door was still closed. He turned back to the phone guiltily. An overwhelming curiosity battled with the surefire knowledge that he would be intruding on something private…

            Stiles picked up the phone double checking the volume. It was all the way down. He found the video Derek must have been watching all night easily enough, and was surprised to see it was a text from an unknown number. Stiles looked down the hall one last time before finally hitting play.

            The video was short-just under a minute long all told. At first Stiles wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but the dawning horror crept through him as he realized. The video showed Derek’s house in flames, and what could only be some of his family members pounding helplessly against the windows-trapped. A single line of text was displayed for the entire video.

            _It’s your fault._

Stiles shuddered in shock and nearly dropped Derek’s phone, catching it with his foot just before it could hit the bathroom’s hard tile floor. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and his mind was racing with wild thoughts. The video seemed to make it clear-whatever had happened was no accident.

            _Someone sent Derek Hale a video of his family burning alive…_

 


	2. Chapter 2

            Stiles was still reeling. His brain just hadn’t stopped racing since he’d found the video on Derek’s phone. Derek had been asleep when Stiles left for school that morning- or least still holed up in the guest bedroom. Which really was probably for the best-Stiles had been on auto pilot for all of breakfast with his dad, his mind a million miles away. The video just raised so many questions-Stiles wasn’t sure what he’d say to Derek whenever he saw him next…

            For as much as he’d always carried a bit of a secret torch for the older boy, Stiles had maybe said a grand total of twenty words to him in his entire life, and half of those had been awkward ramblings last night. The video had Stiles questioning everything, and couldn’t help but remind him how little he really knew about Derek and his family.

            The video had come in a text, which obviously ruled out the possibility of Derek taking it himself at least. _But if someone else had been there why didn’t we see any sign of them?_ Stiles thought again of the isolation of the Hale property, and the single road that lead to it. _If someone else was there they must have arrived and left before we even got there…_ Which Stiles supposed fit somewhat sadly with the contents of the video. It seemed pretty clear that several members of Derek’s family had been alive and fighting when it was filmed. _But then wouldn’t Derek have run into them? He was there before we were…_ Stiles wished he’d thought to look if the video had a time stamp of when it was sent. He’d been too surprised at first to notice and by the time he’d thought of it that morning Derek’s phone was gone. He must have gotten up sometime in the night and taken it back from the bathroom.

            Then on top of all that there was the message. _Why would someone say the fire was Derek’s fault?_ Was it supposed to be purely taunting- a final twist of the knife from whoever had taken the video? A warning of some kind? It didn’t make any sense-which all led Stiles to the single biggest question he was wrestling with-

_Why didn’t Derek show my dad the video?_

It was almost certainly proof that some kind of foul play was involved-but as far as Stiles knew his dad and the other investigators were still treating the whole thing as some kind of accident. Nothing was official yet of course, but it seemed clear Stiles’ dad hadn’t seen the video. _So why was Derek keeping it a secret? Does he know something? The text was from an unknown number but that doesn’t mean-_

 _“_ Stiles!”

            Stiles jerked his head up from his lunch tray where he had been slowing stabbing what he was pretty sure was supposed to be a Salisbury steak with his fork. At some point Scott and Allison had taken their usual seats across from him at the table and he hadn’t even noticed.

            “You okay?” Scott asked wheezing a little.

            “Yeah sorry…” Stiles watched as Scott took a quick breath from his inhaler. “Were you saying something?”

            “I was asking you about last night…” Scott frowned. “Man you are distracted today…”

            Stiles shrugged guiltily. “I just can’t get the fire out of my head…”

            “Here.” Allison slid one of her notebooks over to him. “These are today’s chemistry notes. Mr. Harris was saying there’d probably be a quiz on it tomorrow and you didn’t seem to be writing anything down…”

            “Probably said that _because_ he saw I wasn’t taking notes. The man hates me.” Stiles sighed. “Thanks for these.”

            Allison smiled. “No problem.”

            “So is it really true the whole house burned down?” Scott asked quietly.

            Stiles nodded. “Near enough. The place is totaled. My dad has Derek staying in our guest room…”

            Scott raised an eyebrow curiously. “Derek’s staying with you?”

            “It’s not like that.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “I think my dad was just worried to leave him alone right away.” Derek had already endangered himself once in trying to charge into a burning building, and been lucky enough to walk away with only a few minor injuries. Derek didn’t have an immediate support system in town anymore-the fire had taken that from him-and while he didn’t really seem like the type Stiles knew his dad would keep a careful on eye over the next few days to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or others. Grief could make people do strange things… Stiles caught the knowing look Scott gave him and shook his head. “Seriously it’s not.”

            Scott of course knew all about Stiles old crush on Derek-they were best friends after all-but he sometimes had a tendency to see the world through a naively innocent and good lens. The real world wasn’t like some romantic comedy. Stiles blamed at least part of Scott’s optimism on Allison-not that it was a bad thing. Despite quickly becoming one of the most popular girls in school when her family moved back into town a few months ago Scott and Allison had just clicked. It had never seemed to matter to her that Scott and Stiles were the epitome of high school losers, the lowest of the low in the superficial hierarchy the place seemed to impose, she’d struck up an easy relationship with Scott all the same. It had thrown her circle of friends almost as much as it had Scott and Stiles at first, but now seemed practically normal. Allison and Scott hung out after school all the time, and she ate lunch with them every other day, spending the rest with Lydia and her other friends at the so-called cool table. But even Allison looked surprised when Jackson _freaking_ Whittemore walked past his usual table and pulled out the chair next to her.

            Stiles gaped at him, words failing. Allison dating Scott may have created something of an uneasy truce between Jackson, Scott and Stiles-at least Jackson didn’t mock them quite so openly anymore, and even seemed to have grown to tolerate their presence on his precious lacrosse team- but he would never in a million years sit with them.

            Jackson took in Stiles’ shock and smirked. “Close your mouth Stilinski you look like a fish.”

            Allison frowned. “Jackson-“

            Jackson rolled his eyes. “Oh come on-“

            “Already charming them I see.” Danny, Jackson’s best friend and one of the few people who actually seemed to enjoy spending time with him slid down across from him taking the chair next to Stiles. Jackson laughed.

            “I’m just being honest.”

            “So what brings the king of the lunch room to our humble table?” Stiles grumbled. He could see other students around the room watching them and whispering curiously. “Did you get lost?”

            “Hilarious.” Jackson’s smirk didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Actually we came to see you.”

            Stiles’ readied come back- a well placed jab about Jackson’s overly styled hair he thought might even pull a laugh from Danny- died on his lips. “What? Why?”

            “Because I suddenly find your nauseating personality appealing-why do you think dumb ass?” When Jackson saw the confusion still evident on Stiles face he sighed heavily. “The Hale house fire. People are saying you were there…”

            _Of course._ Stiles should have known it would take something as morbid as that to make Jackson deign to speak to him. Stiles was about to tell him to mind his own business when a sudden thought occurred to him- _Jackson’s dad was a high priced defense attorney. Could he think one of his clients had something to do with the fire?_ _It was a long shot but still-_ “Who are you asking for-you or your dad?”

            The baffled look Jackson gave him killed that line of thinking pretty quickly. “Why would my dad be asking about an accident?” Jackson’s eyes narrowed critically. “That’s what the papers were saying it was right?”

            Stiles just shrugged and glared at Jackson. Stiles really didn’t appreciate his tone...People had died. The least Jackson could do was show a little respect.

            Jackson must have sensed something of what Stiles was thinking. “Look I feel bad for them all I really do” he huffed “but that fire is the first interesting thing to happen in this town in ages-you really going to hate me just for being curious?”

            It was about the closest thing to an apology someone like Stiles would probably ever get from Jackson. Still, Stiles smiled cheekily-“Like I’d really need a new reason to hate you Jackson. You’ve given me so many already.”

            Jackson flipped him off lazily and then turned to Danny, purposefully ignoring Stiles return of the gesture. “So Danny-party at my house this weekend?” Jackson winked. “I promise you won’t have to walk in on Ethan and me if you show up early again.”

            Danny laughed. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

            “And yet you still decided you and Ethan were better off just friends.” Jackson smirked and nudged Danny’s leg under the table. “Seriously though you should come. Bring bendy boy-I want to meet him.”

            Danny blushed and took a sudden drink. Stiles couldn’t help but laugh.

            “Bendy boy?”

            “I told you-“ Danny said when he finally swallowed. “His name is Brett.”

            “Oh?” Allison perked up smiling at Danny. “So then who’s Brett?”

            “This guy Danny met at the club that he keeps refusing to introduce me to.” Jackson grinned wickedly. “Apparently he’s very flexible…” Jackson wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Yoga I hear.”

            Allison frowned. “Is he our age?”

            “Yeah.” Danny nodded. “He goes to Davenford Prep.”

            “Mm fancy.” Allison smiled and asked Danny some other question about his new guy. Stiles attention was quickly fading away, his thoughts drifting slowly back the video.

            “-which reminds me-“ Danny said laughing now “Brett said if you ever plan to steal their mascot again to not give it whatever fancy gourmet feed you bought. Apparently it took him and the other players a solid week to get it to eat the regular stuff again which for a goat is saying something.”

            _That_ suddenly grabbed Stiles attention again. “You guys did that?” Stiles fumed. “Coach made us run extra laps for a week!”

            Stiles’ objection just seemed to make Jackson smile wider. “Worth it. But the feed was all Ethan. Aiden and I grabbed it but we had no idea how to take care of it…”

            “Did I hear my name?” One of the twins sidled up to their table and flopped down into Jackson’s lap balancing his weight on Jackson’s leg-Ethan Stiles presumed. He made to lean in for a kiss and Jackson just smirked and gave him a playful push back.

            “How can you always tell?” Aiden then-Stiles mentally corrected himself-laughed and slid off of Jackson and into the chair next to him. “We’re even wearing the same clothes today.”

            “Ethan’s much hotter.”    

            Aiden smirked. “You’ve never seen me naked.”

            Jackson just raised his eyebrows knowingly and Aiden laughed.

            "Showers after games don’t count.”

            “Seriously-“ Stiles interjected again angrily- “why did you guys steal their mascot?”

            Jackson shrugged but actually responded to Stiles this time. “Because it was fun?”

            “And we’re wildly irresponsible.” Aiden chuckled. “But hey we gave him back and Ethan made sure we didn’t accidently kill him…”

            “Where is he anyways?” Jackson asked.

            “Still in the lunch line.” Aiden jerked his head off in that general direction. “He and Lydia got out late from their Calculus test…”

            Once they had finished getting their food Lydia and Ethan made their way over to the table too. Jackson draped an easy around Ethan as he ate and filled him in on the apparent hilarity of the goat preferring the food Ethan had bought for it over its regular diet at Davenford. Lydia gave Aiden a quick peak on the cheek and then pressed a book into his hands, which for all of Aiden’s supposed grumbling he happily held open for her to review as she ate. Stiles sighed. There was something cosmically unjust in a universe that finally had Lydia and Jackson break up at the beginning of the school year, only to then immediately pair them with gorgeous identical twins…

            Stiles didn’t even make an effort to follow the conversation after that. He was never really one for high school banality and in the face of everything that happened last night it just seemed especially trivial. Around him his classmates, because Stiles would only really consider Scott and Allison his friends-and okay maybe Danny too sometimes- were planning parties and thinking about the next fun thing they could all do together-and all Stiles could do was wonder what Derek Hale might have been thinking about doing on his break if not for the fire…

***

            “Sheriff?”

            He looked up from the depressing mountain of paperwork on his desk that was the Hale house fire and saw Parrish standing in his office doorway. At twenty-five Parrish was easily the youngest deputy in the station, but he had an eagerness to learn and a work ethic that rivaled officers years his senior.

            “What can I do for you son?”

            “Uh well sir-“ the Sheriff noticed Parrish was clutching a file nervously in his hands and sighed. That was never a good sign… “We just got a call from an FBI agent telling us he’s moving a prisoner later today from the maximum security prison to their field offices for some questioning. Apparently the warden approved it because the prison didn’t have some of the equipment the agent wanted to use to monitor everything…”

            The Sheriff swore. That was a dangerous indulgence if ever he heard one. “If you gave me three guess who this FBI agent was, what are the chances I’d just need the one?”

            Parrish smiled nervously clearly catching his meaning. “Pretty strong sir.”

            The Sheriff shook his head. “Did he want police presence along the route?”

            “No sir.” Parrish lifted up the folder and the Sheriff knew he was quoting the agent by the immediate shift in tone. “Apparently the call ‘was merely a courtesy between two levels of law enforcement.’ He said he ‘didn’t need out help or usual level of bumbling interference.’”

            “Probably just worried the warden would tell me first.” The Sheriff snorted. “Did he say who the prisoner was?” The question had almost been an after thought, it was clear the local law enforcement wasn’t going to get a say in this so in that sense it really shouldn’t have made a difference to the Sheriff who the prisoner being moved for some sort of special questioning was. Parrish’s face told him it mattered. The Sheriff’s expression darkened. “Who?”

            “William Barrow.”

            “William Bar-why in the _world_ would they want to risk moving that mass murder?” The Sheriff growled. “Parrish you listen hear-I don’t care what he says I want eyes on that transport. And you have our people let me know the minute-I mean the minute anything funny happens you hear? I’m not letting that mad man get lose in my town.”

            Parrish nodded seriously. “I’m on it boss.”

            “-and get me a number for a direct line to our favorite Special Agent. Let’s see if I can’t talk some sense into him…”

            “I thought you might want that…” Parrish opened the file he was holding and pulled out a business card. “Here… I’ll get started on a patrol for the route…”

            The Sheriff took the card glaring at the specially engraved text. _Special Agent Rafael McCall._ He sighed and punched the number into his office phone. It only rang twice before being answered.

            “Sheriff I had a feeling you might call.” The voice was just barely on the polite side of condescending. “As I already explained to your officer-“

            “Cut the crap alright-what reason could you possibly have for moving William Barrow through my town?”

            “Now you know I don’t have to tell you that.” McCall said sternly. “The questions are part of an on going investigation-“

            “Really?” The Sheriff fought to keep his voice even, biting back the bile the agent always seemed to raise in him. “Because as I recall when we arrested Barrow years ago he had no association with any possible case. The man’s a nut job. He walked onto a bus and killed _kids_ -“ he paused to take a steadying breath. “So unless you can give me some reasonable cause, I’ll have no other choice but to take this as some sort of dangerous power play-which you can be sure I’d make a point of reporting to your supervisor.”

            The line stayed quiet for a moment.

            “Well?” the Sheriff asked angrily. “Which is it huh Rafe?”

            “…Barrow is claiming to have information connected to the Benefactor.”

            The Sheriff nearly gagged. “ _The Benefactor?_ Are you seriously still after that story?” He laughed bitterly. “Why didn’t Barrow just offer you up the Tooth Fairy and Santa while he was at it?”

            “I have evidence-“

            “You have a _story._ ” The Sheriff corrected bitterly. “One told by a couple of criminal low life’s we picked up who used to run together. Outside of that _completely unsubstantiated_ _testimony_ the name has never been linked to _anything_.”

            “Well as always you’re _local_ input is appreciated Stilinski” McCall sneered “But this is happening. Make sure you and your office cooperate fully with my request or I’ll be filing my own report. Always a pleasure…”

            The phone clicked off before the Sheriff could respond. He set it back down fighting the urge to grind his teeth.

***

            Stiles pulled the jeep into his usual spot in the driveway and climbed out. The rest of the school day had been something of a blur. Lacrosse practice had been thankfully brief, though he knew Coach would probably start running them harder again soon with some of the games they had coming up. Stiles checked the fridge and found it had been fully stocked with food since he left that morning-his dad must have asked one of the deputies to drop off some things and maybe covertly check in on Derek at some point.

            A quick look down the hallway told Stiles the door to the guest bedroom was still closed. Stiles grabbed a drink from the fridge and trudged down to his room, thinking to maybe knock and ask if Derek wanted anything when he caught sight of him sitting at the desk in Stiles’ room.

            “Oh-uh hi…” Stiles said awkwardly.

            Derek’s gaze ticked up from the desk. “I needed your phone charger…”

            Stiles saw Derek had his phone clutched in his hand, the dark screen just starting to come back to life as power was slowly restored. Stiles’ own was on the last bit of charge but he let Derek leave his plugged in. Stiles dumped his backpack on the ground and glanced back at Derek over his shoulder, wondering somewhat guiltily if Derek had spent all day just sitting in the dark and rewatching the video on his phone.

            _I shouldn’t say anything. I shouldn’t-_ “It’s not true you know.” _Damn it._ Stiles cursed his own big mouth even as he felt more words spilling forth. “What that video said…”

            Derek’s expression darkened from momentary confusion to something else as he realized what Stiles meant. “You went through my phone?”

            “No I didn’t-I mean _yeah_ but it wasn’t like that-“ Stiles knew he was babbling. “It’s just I saw it in the bathroom and it was unlocked- and I know I shouldn’t have and I’m sorry but that video…”

            Derek was quiet awhile, just glaring at Stiles.

            “…say something…” Stiles finally begged cracking under the intensity of Derek’s stare.

            “…You’re wrong.” Derek ground out softly.

            “I know and I said I was sorry-“ Stiles stopped suddenly realizing what Derek had said. “Wait what? What are you talking about?”

            “What happened…it was my fault.”

            Stiles grimaced. “Look I know it might feel that way but you didn’t start the fire. And whoever sent you that message-“

            “My mother was getting the family together since I was coming home…” Derek said quietly. “They were only there because of me… “

            “Oh jezz…” Stiles ran a hand through his hair not even sure where to _begin_ unpacking that one. “Derek-“

            “I should have been there…”

            “Even if you had been it wouldn’t have made a difference-“

            “No.” Derek shook his head slowly. “I got a flat tire on the way back from school. If I didn’t have to stop and change it I would have been there when…when it started…”

            Stiles was seriously _not_ the right person to be having this conversation with. But he was the only one here. He sighed and tried to think of something to say that didn’t involve just parroting the same phrases people had tossed at him after his mother died…

            Finally he just asked.

            “Why haven’t you shown that video to anyone?”

            Derek seemed to study Stiles for a long moment before pulling something from his back pocket. “This was left outside today…”

            Stiles unfolded it carefully. It was a note, but the letters varied in size and color, looking to have been cut out from something else and carefully glued together.

            _Be careful who you trust. Mind the eyes upon you._

            In place of a name there was a symbol at the bottom of the note Stiles didn’t recognize. He read the note twice before looking back at Derek.

            “Someone just left this for you?”

            Derek nodded.

            “That symbol at the bottom-what does it mean?”

            Derek hesitated a second before answering. “…It’s a triskelion. My mother has some in her office to represent the three branches of government…”

            “So what-whoever sent this is saying they worked with your mother?” Stiles asked.

            Derek shrugged. “Maybe.”

            Stiles frowned, studying the note again. “You know there’s always the chance the same person who sent you that video made this…try and scare you off of sharing it…”

            “It crossed my mind.”

            “Why are you showing it to me?” Stiles asked. “I mean if the note says not to trust anyone…”

            “You already made a point of watching the video.” Derek said darkly.

            “So what?” Stiles said slowly, “You’re tentatively trusting me?”

            “Not like I have much of a choice…” Derek growled. “So yes. For now…”

***

            The Sheriff checked his watch nervously. Barrow’s transport was less then two minutes away. The Sheriff had managed to be on site for his arrival to the FBI complex by calling in some favors owed him by other agents, though he doubted it would help his relationship with McCall any. Rafael McCall was standing front and center outside the complex ringed by at least a dozen other agents. It made an impressive sight, but it still irked the Sheriff. This whole move reeked of a publicity stunt, a way for McCall to try and look good while maybe gaining some ground for the ghost story he’d been chasing for years.

            The Benefactor had become like the bogeyman of local law enforcement. The name had been dropped just the once years ago, but since then rumors seemed to pop up everywhere. It was a story passed around from cop to cop as a joke, something to blame unexplained cases on. When the kids had first mentioned the name several levels of law enforcement had scoured their records looking for any possible clues on the supposed mystery man. No one had turned up any evidence. The FBI still kept one agent assigned to the case on paper but no one really believed anything would turn up-No one besides Rafael McCall apparently. The case had become his obsession, the one way he thought he could make a name for himself and salvage something of his reputation. He’d only gotten worse once he’d separated from Melissa. The Sheriff had personally been involved in arresting Barrow before-and they’d found no connection between him any other criminal activity of _any_ sort before he walked onto that bus with his homemade bomb. Barrow mentioning the Benefactor now after all these years felt like a setup. The Sheriff didn’t know what he was up to, it felt like they were all playing right into Barrow’s hands-and he hated it. He’d made a point of checking Barrow was secured before leaving the jail personally, and arrived at the FBI complex ten minutes ago to begin the long stretch of waiting to see the transport van arrive behind him.

            The late afternoon sun glinted off the van as it pulled down the driveway, and the Sheriff breathed a sigh of relief. He watched McCall smile and step up to open the van’s back doors. As soon as they opened the Sheriff knew something was wrong. There was only one man inside and it wasn’t Barrow. McCall realized a second later shouting for the agents to circle the van. The man just grinned.

            “Where is he?” McCall shouted. “Where’s Barrow?”

            _Not here._ The Sheriff thought bitterly.

***

            Stiles’ phone chimed that it was finally out of power and winked off. He tossed it down on his desk still studying Derek.

            “I still think we should tell my dad about all this.”

            “No.” Derek’s tone was clipped but firm.

            “You’re letting me know why can’t he?” Stiles groaned.

            “I didn’t _let_ you do anything.” Derek snapped. “You watched the video already so I showed you the note to keep you _quiet_ about the video.”

            Which, okay yes, Stiles deserved that. He sighed. Why did this have to be so difficult? He supposed he understood on _some_ level where Derek was coming from-losing your whole family, and then getting not one but two cryptic messages about it was bound to make anyone a little paranoid-but this was Stiles’ _dad_. If anyone was safe to be trusted it was him.

            “Let me see the note again...” Stiles huffed.

***

            The Sheriff’s sirens were blaring as he speed back to the station. He had the police radio in one hand, his phone pinned to his ear by the same shoulder. Stiles wasn’t picking up…

            “-we know Barrow was loaded up but somewhere between the prison and the FBI complex he escaped.” Tara sounded a little rattled, a faint quiver noticeable in her voice over the radio. “The warden’s locked the place down in case he’s still somewhere on site.”

            “What about our decoy?” The Sheriff asked dropping the radio to try and call Stiles again and warn him. Still nothing…

            “The man in the van was Elliot Kemper another inmate at the prison. Same with the driver-one James Smith. We’re checking records right now but it doesn’t look like either one of them ever shared a cell with Barrow or anything like that.”

            The Sheriff frowned. “So what’s the connection?”

            “Still looking sir.”

            Stiles’ phone was still going straight to voice mail. The Sheriff grimaced and started dialing again…

            _Pick up._

***

            The more he looked at the note the more he was convinced it meant something. While the letters were mostly different shapes and colors some of them almost seemed to match. He pointed to Derek.

            “Look see-the n there too. And the m…”

            Derek tilted his head to look over Stiles’ shoulder. “You think it’s a message?”

            “Maybe.” Stiles grabbed a pen from the cup on his desk. “Let’s see here…”

            In the end they were left with seven letters.

            _E T M N E O N_

Stiles passed the paper with the letters scrawled on it to Derek. “That mean anything to you?”

“Etmneon?” Derek shook his head. “No.”

            Stiles frowned. “Hmm…maybe if we-“

            The doorbell cut him off. Before he could think to say anything it rang it again. Stiles sighed.

            “Hang on…”

            He jogged down the hallway to the front door. Looking through the peephole in the door out of habit Stiles made out a man in a courier uniform on the front step. He opened the door curiously.

            “Yeah?”

            The man smiled, and Stiles was oddly unsettled. “I’ve got some papers here for Derek Hale.” The man tapped a small box under his arm. “I was told he was staying here.”

            “Oh yeah…” Stiles supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Between insurance agents, lawyers, and funeral arrangements, Derek could probably expect a mountain of documents like this over the next few weeks. “I can give them to him…”

            “He’ll need to sign for them.”

            “Derek-“ Stiles turned to call back into the house. “You need to sign for-“ As he shifted Stiles caught a better look of the man’s face underneath his low pulled cap and froze. He knew that face.

            William Barrow’s smile widened. “Is there a problem?”

            “Uh-“ Stiles mind was racing with all the different ways he could play this. “No-no problem-“

            Something shifted in Barrow’s eyes. _He knows._

            Stiles slammed the door back in Barrow’s face just as the man tried to make a grab for Stiles’ arm. Stiles tried to go for the lock but before he could get it to turn Barrow was already forcing the door back, working his foot slowly into the doorframe.

            “Derek!”

            He came running up the hall at the sound of his name and the mounting commotion with the door. “Stiles what-“

            “Ask later help now!” Stiles snapped.

            With Derek’s strength they were able to push the door back on Barrow, and might have been successful in shutting him out if it weren’t for the bullet that suddenly whizzed past Stiles’ shoulder. Another bullet flew wildly past them and they were forced to abandon the door to try and find cover. Derek shoved a nearby armchair back up against it, but even that only bought them a couple seconds as Barrow forced his way in.

            “I am sorry.” Barrow cackled. “But since you won’t sign for my little package you’ve forced me to resort to something a little outside my area of expertise.” He stepped carefully inside his eyes wide and taking in the room around him. Stiles had managed to wedge himself behind the Stilinskis’ well-worn couch, but Derek having taken the extra second to move the chair was left mostly exposed behind the TV stand. Barrow held his gun out in front of himself and lined up the easy shot.

            Three quick shots rang out, one after the other.

            Barrow had a single moment to turn in surprise to the blood spilling from his chest before he collapsed to the ground. Behind him, framed firmly in the doorway and just slightly out of breath stood the Sheriff.

            “Dad-“ Stiles untangled himself from the couch and made to take a step towards the door but the Sheriff was already there, seemingly crossing the room in a single step and pulling Stiles into a crushing embrace.

            “Offf-“ Stiles gasped a little as the air was slowly squeezed out of his lungs. “How did you know he was here?”

            “I didn’t.” The Sheriff finally released his son, taking a single step away, his eyes boring into Barrow’s back. “But I got worried when you weren’t answering your phone. I was just coming by to make sure you were okay…”

            “Phh-“Stiles gave him a small smile. “Yeah I’d say I’m okay now.”

            “Derek?” The Sheriff asked.

            Derek just nodded.

            Within minutes of the Sheriff calling it in the house was swarming with deputies and several FBI agents, chief among them one very angry Rafael McCall. Stiles watched his dad arguing with the other man from the front lawn as the coroner loaded Barrow’s body in a bag. Stiles couldn’t say he was sorry to see him dead.

            “-now you’ve gone and killed our one possible lead-“

            “What I did was protect my son from a deranged lunatic _you_ saw fit to let escape-“

            Stiles shook his head and caught sight of Derek standing off a ways and leaning up against a small tree in the Stilinskis’ front yard. They’d both been given cursory exams by a paramedic and had been cleared with nothing more serious then a slight bruise on Stiles hand from where he’d slammed it against the doorframe. The local bomb squad had been there too, having taken the package Barrow had brought with him back to run some tests. Derek caught Stiles’ eye and nodded once.

            Stiles turned back in time to see Barrow’s body finally be loaded into the coroner’s van. Barrow was dead-and with him any doubts in Stiles’ mind. Someone wanted Derek Hale dead, along with the rest of his family.

            _The only question was why…_

 


	3. Chapter 3

            “…and then you’ll just need to initial here…and sign this here…”

            Derek was sitting in with his family’s lawyer finalizing the transfer of the family’s remaining properties and assets over to him. The meeting had been relocated to the Sheriff’s station last minute, since Stiles’ dad was still a little jumpy after the attack by Barrow two days ago. The Barrow incident was only adding to the mountain of paperwork on the Sheriff’s desk, with the Hale fire itself still being chief among those cases. But that might soon change. Stiles strolled past the conference room where Derek and his lawyer were camped out and poked his head back into his dad’s office.

            “Anything yet?”

            The Sheriff shook his head. He was waiting on a call, the county arson investigator was supposed to finally give the Sheriff their report one way or the other today, and while Stiles had every reason to believe it was arson with the video someone had sent Derek of the fire, nothing had been ruled officially yet. Once the case was officially down as arson the Sheriff could begin formally investigating the crime and hopefully shed some light on the whole situation. Stiles, for his part, was still trying to convince Derek to show his dad the video, but for the moment Derek was holding firm.

            Stiles sighed and flopped down into a chair opposite his dad. “When do you think-“

            As if in answer the phone finally rang. The Sheriff smiled at Stiles and reached over to grab it.

            “Stilinski here.” The Sheriff paused as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. Stiles strained his ears trying to catch a word or two but couldn’t make anything out. “Uh-huh. Yes….well that’s good news then. Thank you.”

            Stiles frowned. _In what world would arson be considered good news?_ “Uh dad…?”

            “The investigator says they found no sign of arson at all.” The Sheriff said happily. “It doesn’t diminish the tragedy of what happened but I have to say I’m relived all the same. The idea that someone could do that to another person-a whole family…”

            Stiles zoned out as his dad kept talking, the words fading to a dull buzz in his ears. _No sign of arson_. The video seemed to point squarely to the opposite conclusion. A part of him, Stiles now realized, had really only been going along with Derek on keeping the video a secret because he’d been convinced his dad would wind up investigating the case regardless. Now that didn’t seem so clear. Stiles knew that there were ways of hiding how a fire started-but that pointed to a greater level of premeditation behind the attacks on Derek and his family than Stiles had considered before. It all kept leading back to the same conclusion-someone wanted Derek and his family dead and put a good deal of time and effort into accomplishing it.

            Now more than ever Stiles needed to convince Derek to show his dad that video…

            A deputy Stiles recognized by face only poked his head into the office. “Sorry if I’m interrupting Sheriff-I just wanted to thank you for those flowers you sent.”

            “Of course not Deputy Woodward come in.” The Sheriff smiled warmly. “We’re glad to have you back. How’s your mother doing?”

            “Better sir thanks.” The deputy smiled back. “She really did appreciate those flowers.”

            “Oh it was the least I could do.” The Sheriff waved Stiles forward. “This is my son I don’t know if you two have met yet…”

            “I don’t think so.” The man reached out his hand and Stiles shook it.

            “Stiles. You said it’s Woodward right?”

            “For your dad and anyone else around the station but you can just call me Jamie.” Woodward nodded back to the Sheriff. “Anyways I’ve got to get back-but I just wanted to stop in and say thanks again for letting me take the last few days off to go up and see her.”

            “It’s not a problem son.” Stiles watched his dad clasp the younger man on the back and walk him back to his desk. Stiles couldn’t help but smile watching them go, knowing how much pride his dad took in knowing the names and circumstances of every officer under his command.

            Stiles flicked his gaze back to the conference room in time to see Derek’s lawyer leaving and made his move. He walked across the bullpen of desks and slipped into the conference room, pulling up the chair next to Derek. Derek frowned when he looked up from whatever document he’d been glancing over and caught Stiles sitting there staring at him.

            “What?”

            “You really need to show my dad that video.”

            Derek sighed dropping the paper back onto the stack with the others. “We’ve been over this-“

            “Yeah but now the investigators have officially ruled the fire at your house an accident.” Stiles huffed.

            Derek’s expression darkened. “How?”

            Stiles shrugged. “They found no sign of arson? Unless there’s some clear foul play involved accident is usually the running theory.”

            “And you think showing your dad the video changes that?” Derek ground out softly.

            “Well yeah.” Stiles had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. “That’s what evidence usually does.”

            Derek sighed and stood up abruptly. “Fine.”

            “What you want to go right now?” Stiles asked taken aback by the sudden change in Derek’s attitude.

            “Why not?”

            “Ufff-yeah no okay…” Stiles hopped back up trying to think of just what he’d say to his dad. “Let’s go now I guess…”

            Stiles trudged back to his dad’s office slowly, Derek following right behind him like a second shadow. The walk back felt somehow longer for Stiles, and he could feel the dread at what his dad might think growing in his stomach like a weed, slowly choking out everything else and leaving behind just a hollow ache of worry.

            The Sheriff was already back behind his desk when they got there, and he greeted them with an easy smile. “Hey…all finished with the lawyer?”

            Derek nodded stiffly. “Everything’s transferred over. I’ll have my things moved over to the loft of one of my parent’s buildings and be out of your hair…”

            “I’m sure Stiles would be willing to help you with that.” The Sheriff said gesturing to his son as he bent down to pull out his lunch bag. “And it was never a problem son we were happy to put you up for a few days…”

            “Yeah uh-anyways dad…” Stiles spared a quick glance behind him and seeing the curtains on the windows still open moved to shut them, blocking them off from the view of the rest of the station. “We uh-we have something we need to show you…”

            The Sheriff raised an eyebrow at Stiles’ antics but took Derek’s phone without saying a word. Stiles leaned around him to press play his eyes locked on his father’s face. The Sheriff was quiet as he watched, even queuing the video up a second time and watching it through again before he finally spoke up.

            “When did you get this?”

            “Yeah uh-see that’s the thing…” Stiles started. “What you have to understand is-“

            “Stiles.” His father’s tone made it clear he was in no mood for clever answers.

            “Uh-Thursday night.” Stiles said finally, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

            “The night of the fire.” It wasn’t a question, but the Sheriff was facing Derek now, and he just nodded gravely.

            Stiles waited, unsure just what his dad’s response would be. He thought maybe anger, or at least a fierce reminder of what it meant to withhold evidence like this in a possible criminal case…he hadn’t expected his dad to grab for a piece of paper from inside his desk.

            “Sign this.” The Sheriff practically shoved the form into Derek’s hands.

            Derek frowned. “What is it?

            “An order for police protection.” The Sheriff fumed. “Once you sign that I’ll have a deputy outside your building and going with you anywhere people could expect you ahead of time.”

            Derek shook his head. “No-“

            “I’m not asking you son.” The Sheriff snapped. “But the only way I can assign an officer to you is if you sign that paper-so sign the damn paper.”

            Stiles watched as Derek took the pen and reluctantly signed the form. His dad snatched it back the moment he was finished.

            “I’ll have someone stationed outside your uncle’s hospital room for now too. And you-“ Stiles couldn’t help but grimace as his dad’s attention swung back to him. “Both of you-what in the world could make you think not showing me this earlier was a good idea?”

            “Uh well-“ Stiles spared a look to Derek who just sat there stubbornly silent. “At least you can prove it’s arson now right?”

            “No Stiles I can’t. Hey-“ The Sheriff raised his hand silencing Stiles protest before he even finished voicing it. “-the only thing this can definitively prove is negligence if we were to find whoever it was who shot this-“

            “C’mon on dad-“

            “I know it _implies_ more.” The Sheriff sighed. “But by itself it doesn’t prove foul play. I’ll talk to the fire investigators and see if I can get a copy of their report. And let me be clear here-I don’t want either of you two doing anything on this. Let me work the official channels-“

            Stiles barely avoided rolling his eyes, knowing it would inevitably only get him in more trouble with his dad. He knew how long processes like that could take-especially if his dad wasn’t even able to officially investigate the case yet. Hell Derek probably did too. His mom had been on the other side of the system being a prosecutor, but if Hale family dinners shared anything in common with Stilinski ones then Stiles would bet Derek had heard his fair share of complaining about how the justice system worked at times.

            “And as for you young man…you’re grounded.”

            Stiles tuned back in just in time to hear his dad hand down his punishment. He groaned. “Come on dad-“

            “Nah uh-consider yourself lucky that’s all you’re getting.” The Sheriff sighed and his eyes fell back on Derek. “I’d ground you too if I could…seriously what the hell were you two thinking-“

            The rant was cut short by the office phone on the Sheriff’s desk ringing suddenly.

            “Hello?”

            Stiles stood slowly to go, motioning for Derek to do the same. He was sure he hadn’t heard the last of this from his dad yet but he knew when to take an exit opportunity afforded him.

            “-hold on just a minute.” The Sheriff lifted the phone away from his ear to wave a finger between Derek and Stiles. “I’m serious now-I don’t want you to do anything with this case…”

            “Course not.” Stiles tried for his most innocent smile. “Cross my heart.”

            His dad looked unconvinced, but Stiles slipped out of the office before he could say anything else.

            The Sheriff sighed as he watched the two boys walk out into the hall and turned his attention back to the phone. “Alright-I’m back Tara go ahead…”

            “We were going over the finances of the criminals that were swapped out for Barrow-Kemper and Smith- and we found a series of payments made to both men totaling upwards of ten thousand dollars.”

            “What?” The Sheriff grabbed a pen and notepad from the mess on his desk. “How did that not register before?”

            “It was small transfers, all kept under the amounts at which banks would have to disclose this kind of thing. But here’s the weird part-“

            “This whole case isn’t already the weird part?”

            Tara laughed hollowly. “Afraid not. The payments-they were all made before Kemper and Smith were in our jail. Best we can match things up it looks like the money transfers started back when their sentences were first handed down. Life without parole in both cases…someone paid these men as soon as their trials were over…”

            The Sheriff frowned. “How long ago?”

            “Ten months for Smith, five _years_ for Kemper…”

            The Sherriff whistled softly. It was looking like someone had paid these men far in advance for services they had just now called to collect on… “I want to know who put that money in their accounts. And while you’re at it look through the records of some of the other prisoners with life sentences-I don’t want anymore surprises…”

            “Will do.”

            The phone clicked off leaving the Sheriff alone with his thoughts. The circumstances of Barrow’s escape kept flashing through his mind. _What kind of person plans for something like this years in advance…_

He wasn’t sure he would like the answer…

***

            “Derek! Derek come on-“

            He just kept walking at his same brisk pace, forcing Stiles to jog a few steps to catch up with his longer strides.

            “Hey!” Stiles finally stepped in front of Derek, pulling Derek back from wherever his head had gone off to. Derek blinked narrowly avoiding colliding with Stiles. “Where exactly are you off to in such a hurry huh?”

            “You told your dad you wouldn’t do anything else with this case…”

            “Yeah and I lied-obviously.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “Something I’m pretty sure even my dad knows…”

            Derek’s hesitation was obvious.

            “Come on-“ Stiles groaned “I’m already in things this far…what do you have to lose by telling me? And for that matter what else could you possibly be hiding?” He gave Derek a confused look. “I mean seriously what could possibly be…”

            Derek sighed seeming to weigh his options. “Fine…”

            Stiles frowned. “Fine _what?_ ”

            Derek had started walking again, but Stiles was keeping better pace this time. “I’m heading to my mother’s office.”

            “Why?” Stiles gave him a baffled look.

            “Before-“ Derek broke off, and when he started talking again it was so quiet Stiles had to strain to hear him even standing as close as he was. “before the fire-my mother told me she was working on a new case…something special…”

            Stiles frowned. “What was it?”

            “I don’t know…” Derek shook his head. “She wouldn’t tell me over the phone. She just said that it was big and needed to stay a secret…She had a few cases like that sometimes so I didn’t think anything of it at first…”

            Stiles saw where his logic was headed. “But now you think her case could be connected to what happened?”

            Derek shrugged, but from his expression it was clear that was _exactly_ what he thought. Stiles took that piece of information in, trying to slowly reevaluate. “If you found your mom’s files on the case would you even be able to figure them out?”

            Derek nodded. “I used to work for her in the summers. If there are any records I should be able to find them…”

            The courthouse was only a block or two away from the Sheriff station. Stiles had been inside once or twice, but Derek was clearly known here. The security guard at the door offered him a sad smile, and on the elevator to the offices upstairs another person greeted him by name.

            The elevator doors opened up on to the third floor where the district attorney’s office was and Derek strode out confidently. Stiles had never been on this level before, and followed Derek taking in the sights around him curiously. When they reached the door to the main office Derek pushed it open and Stiles found himself in a set up not all that dissimilar to the sheriff station. The lobby had a small waiting area and two or three desks in it-likely for secretaries and assistants from the looks of things. On either side of the lobby were doors that lead to two private offices. The ones on the left were firmly closed, but the right side doors were open and these were the ones Derek turned to.

            “Derek…”

            Stiles turned with Derek. The voice belonged to one of the women at a desk in the lobby. She had long dark hair and a young face that made it difficult to guess her age. The woman stood up slowly and made her way over to them.

            Derek nodded to her. “Morrell.”

            “I wasn’t sure we’d see you again.” She pulled Derek into a hug that he returned stiffly. “Do you need something?”

            Seeing Derek struggle to come up with a plausible reason for the visit Stiles stepped up. “He uh-he just wanted to look at his mom’s office…see about maybe taking some of her personal things home…”

            “Of course.” Morrell seemed to consider Stiles carefully for a moment before giving Derek a small smile. “Take all the time you need. Deucalion’s in a meeting right now but I’m sure he’d love to see you when he’s done…”

            Derek forced a strained smiled onto his face, one that was obvious to even Stiles, who was still learning his moods. “Sure…”

            Morrell ushered them towards Talia Hale’s old office, closing the door softly behind them once they were inside. The office was almost twice the size of Stiles’ dad’s down at the Sheriff station and lined with law books. The desk was mostly empty save for a few pictures and knick-knacks, but the floor had several large stacks of files on it. The office’s large filing cabinet was open and from the looks of things someone had been sorting though the documents there.

            “Any idea what we’re looking for?” Stiles asked.

            “No.” Derek sat down at the desk and pulled up his mother’s computer.

            Stiles sighed and opened the top folder on one of the stacks. “Would it be in any of these?”

            “Those are all old cases.” Derek didn’t even look up from the computer. “The whole office has access to those. Whatever she was working on she made it sound like it was separate…”

            “Oookay…” Stiles set the folder back into place and walked over to one of the shelves. It really was just all law books. “Isn’t that a little unusual?”

            “It wouldn’t be the first time if it was something sensitive…” Derek glared at the computer. “I’m not seeing anything here though…

            There was a sudden knock on the door making Stiles jump. Before either of them had the chance to respond the doors were sliding open. A man with dark glasses and a cane was standing on the other side of it, and for all that Stiles knew he must be blind, he seemed to take in everything before him.

            “Derek?” The man tilted his head, listening Stiles guessed to the soft click of the computer keys. “Were you looking for something?”

            Derek quickly closed whatever it was he’d had open and stood up. Stiles gestured wildly, trying to tell him he should pick up some of the things off the desk.

            “Deucalion-hi.” Derek nodded to Stiles finally catching on and picked up a couple of the frames. “Sorry I just wanted to get a few of my mom’s things…I don’t have a lot of pictures anymore…”

            “Please by all means.” Deucalion smiled, but in a way that was more formal then welcoming. “I certainly don’t have much use for them…who’s your friend here?”

            “Stiles.” Stiles stepped forward offering his hand to the older man.

            “He’s the Sheriff’s son.” Derek volunteered. “He’s just-helping me out a little…”

            “Generous of him.” Deucalion clasped Derek firmly on the shoulder. “I can’t tell you how sorry we all are Derek for everything that’s happened.”

            Derek nodded. “I heard they made you acting DA…”

            “Yes well…big shoes to fill but someone has to step up in your mother’s absence.” Deucalion smiled again. “I imagine I’ll fill out the rest of your mother’s term at least. I haven’t decided about running on my own just yet…”

            “Right…” Derek grumbled shrugging off Deucalion’s hand. Stiles was getting the distinct impression Derek wasn’t overly fond of the man.

            Derek turned to go to the door and Deucalion frowned. “Were you both leaving already? You only just got here…”

            “I got what I needed for now…” Derek said evenly.

            “Well let me walk you out at least then…” Deucalion reached out again, taking Stiles shoulder now that he was closer, and gripping it just a little tighter than was comfortable. Stiles tried not to wince.

            Deucalion steered them back out through the outer office and into the hallway. They were just about to part ways when Stiles heard his name.

            “Stilinski?”

            Stiles turned at the sound and fought the urge to curse under his breath worried Deucalion might hear him and get the wrong idea. Jackson was eyeing Stiles and Derek curiously. “Jackson-what are you doing here?”

            “Meeting my dad…” Jackson frowned. “Why are you here?”

            “Oh you know-“ Stiles shrugged. “Just helping Derek…”

            “Helping him what?” Jackson gestured to Stiles' empty hands and the two lone photos Derek was carrying. “Carry all that…?”

            “Uh…”

            “Jackson.” Deucalion stepped out from behind Stiles to shake Jackson’s hand, conveying more warmth than he had with either Stiles or Derek. “How are you?”

            “Good sir.” Jackson broke out his most flattering smile-the one that seemed to convince every teacher at Beacon Hills to let him get away with anything-not that Deucalion could see it. “Staying busy.”

            “I keep telling the twins we have to have you over for dinner again sometime soon.” Deucalion laughed. “You parents are welcome of course too-if you father can stand to be in the same room as me.”

            Jackson grinned. “After beating you last week I don’t think he’ll have a problem with that.”

            “Too true I’m sure.” Deucalion chuckled. “I take it you know Mr. Stilinski here?”

            “Yeah.” Jackson nodded. “From school.”

            “Ah. Yes that would make sense.” Deucalion turned back to Stiles with renewed interest. “You must know my wards then…”

            “Wards?”

            “Ethan and Aiden.”

            “No-I mean yeah I know them…” Stiles smiled. “It’s just who says _wards_? What are you Batman?”

            “I don’t know-“ Deucalion gave his cane a little twirl. “A blind lawyer? I think I’m really more Daredevil don’t you?” Stiles gaped at him. No doubt sensing Stiles' surprise he laughed again. “Raising two boys you pick up a thing or two…”

            “Oh man-now I’ve just got to know which one of the twins is a secret comic book nerd…I bet it’s Ethan right?” Stiles grinned. “Although now I kind of really want it to be Aiden…or maybe both of them? Did they like use to run around pretending to be the Wonder Twins as kids?”

            Jackson shot Stiles a look of pure condescension. “One of the Wonder Twins is a girl-they’re fraternal.”

            “So?” Stiles frowned. “And how do you know that?”

            Jackson shrugged looking a little sheepish. “I pick stuff up…”

            “Anyway…” Derek practically growled-Stiles had almost forgotten about him for a minute. “We should get going…”

            “Oh right…” Stiles studied him for a second curiously. As far as he knew there was no rush-it wasn’t like they’d found anything… “See you at school I guess Jackson…”

            “Yeah…”

            Stiles could feel Jackson’s eyes on him all the way to the elevator. He heaved a sigh of a relief when the doors finally closed behind him. The last thing he needed was more Jackson Whittemore in his life. To his surprise Derek let out a deep breath too.

            “Something the matter?”

            “I don’t like that guy…” Derek glowered.

            “Yeah I was getting that.” Stiles eyed Derek curiously. “Any particular reason why?”

            “He’s always been after my mom’s job.” Derek said bitterly. “He tried running against her once and got totally crushed. She kept him on because he’s good at his job and they used to be friends…but he just gives me the creeps…”

            “Hmm.” Stiles hummed considering the man in a new light. “Did you find anything on the computer before he showed up?”

            “No.” Derek fumed. “Deucalion’s already started to wipe everything off her computer…” Derek looked like he wanted to punch the wall. “Leaves us with nothing…”

            Stiles shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

            “I guess…”

            They were quiet for the rest of the elevator ride and the short walk back outside. Stiles was just starting to try and think of what they’re next move could be when Derek made a noise that could almost pass as laughter. Stiles raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What?”

            “Nothing…” Derek shook his head, a small smile forming before Stiles’ eye, but genuine and almost warm in a way the one he’d given Deucalion could never be. “Just-you’re helping me get two pictures…”

            “Yeah well…” Stiles felt himself smiling too at the thought. “I didn’t see you coming up with any bright ideas why I was there…”

            “There uh…” Derek coughed awkwardly. “There is something you could actually help me with if you don’t mind…”

            Stiles tried not to blush as his mind went a little wild with those words for a moment-instead he frowned studying Derek. “What is it?”

            “I need to go back to my dorm room and grab a few things.” Derek said. “I wouldn’t ask but my car is still in the shop…”

            Stiles had heard Derek going over the repairs with the local garage on the phone yesterday. Apparently in his rush back to Beacon Hills on his spare tire Derek had over done it and damaged the suspension in the Camero. Stiles thought it over for a second as Derek gave him an almost hopeful look…Stiles really didn’t have anywhere he needed to be today… “Okay.” Stiles said firmly-lifting his finger up to accentuate his point-“But on just one condition-you don’t say a bad word about Roscoe. You do and I’m dropping your ass off on the side of the road-you can hitchhike the rest of the way. _With the way he looks I doubt he’d have any problems getting anyone to pick him up…_ Stiles squashed that thought as quickly as it appeared, the last thing he needed was to make a long car ride with Derek incredibly awkward...

            Derek gave him a bemused look. “Roscoe?”

            “What did I just say?” Stiles huffed.

            “Hey-“ Derek held his arms up defensively. “I’m not saying anything bad…it’s just an odd name for a car…”

            “Yeah well…what I can I say?” Stile reached for his keys and spun the ring around his finger once. “I’m an odd guy.”

            Derek didn’t touch that one, just letting the comment hang there as he followed Stiles over to his blue jeep. Stiles silently cursed him choice of words.

            _Smooth Stilinski. So, so smooth…_

***

            The drive felt longer then the hour it actually was. Derek barely said anything for the entire ride, leaving Stiles to babble endlessly in attempt to fill the void, before finally succumbing to the silence, only to then immediate start up again when the quiet between them became too much to bear.

            “-which is probably the main reason why I always hated Harris you know?” Stiles said finally coming to the end of a long-winded story involving himself, Scott and their high school chemistry teacher. “Anyways-“

            “Turn left here.” Derek cut in. “And we’ll be there…”

            “On it…” Stiles turned the wheel bringing Roscoe into the near abandoned parking lot of one of the school’s nicer looking dorms. Stiles supposed the few cars left must belong to students staying at the college still during the break. He killed the engine and hopped out, following Derek as he made his way to the building’s main doors. “So what is it you need to grab anyways?” The question had been on Stiles mind since they left-he’d been a little nervous about asking it before but he figured if he was going to see what Derek picked up in a minute or two anyways there couldn’t be much harm in using it to make conversation.

            “Clothes mostly. My suit…” Derek swiped his college ID in the door’s chip reader and it beeped to let them in.

            Stiles nearly asked why Derek needed that specifically before realizing the obvious. _For the funerals…_ He followed Derek inside searching a little desperately for something else to say.

            “I’m kind of surprised you live in one of the dorms to be honest.” Stiles finally said, trying to keep his voice light and cheery. “You kind of seem like one of those guys who just buys a place off campus…”

            Derek led the way to a room on the second floor and fished out his keys. “My parents wanted me to have a more normal college experience…”

            When the door opened Stiles caught his first glimpse of the room-which was easily twice the size of the standard dorm room-and Stiles noted quickly- only had one bed. Derek smiled a little seeing his reaction and shrugged.

            “…mostly at least.”

            “Must be nice not having to share with a roommate…”

            “Yeah.” Derek made his way over to the closet and started pulling a few things aside. Stiles wandered around the room just taking everything in. There was a fridge in the corner and a small bookcase filled with textbook and the odd novel or two. Stiles caught sight of a basketball stashed in one corner and couldn’t help but grin a little guiltily. Looking around though the dorm felt a little…sparse. Stiles glanced at a few of the book titles again before a framed picture on the desk caught his eye. It was of Derek and a woman few years older than him. Derek was grinning widely at the camera and kissing the woman’s check.

            “Your girlfriend?” Stiles asked pointing to the picture. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised Derek was seeing someone.

            Derek didn’t turn around but Stiles watched his shoulders clench with a sudden tension. “Kate…she’s my ex.”

            “Oh…” For a moment Stiles had wondered if it might have been Paige, the girl Derek had been dating when he was in high school. There were a few similarities, but Stiles was pretty sure he remembered hearing something about Paige moving to the east coast-which no matter what Scott said wasn’t a weird thing to know. Looking at the picture of Derek and Kate again Stiles found something oddly unnerving in the woman’s eyes. “Sorry. What happened?”

            “I caught her cheating on me a week before break started.”

            _Oh damn…_ Stiles winced, and somewhere inside him a joke about women just not being worth the trouble for Derek died half formed. _That was the last thing he’d want to hear right now…_ Looking around again Stiles suddenly realized why the place seemed a little empty- there were things missing-about half a dorm room’s worth of things… _They were living together_ Stiles realized.

            Derek finished loading a bag with whatever else he wanted to take back with him and turned to go. Stiles followed him, realizing for the first time just how much stuff Derek would have lost too. Loosing his family would have to cut the deepest-but he hadn’t been lying to Deucalion earlier when he said he’d be missing things like family photos too. Not to mention the house itself, and who knows what other precious memories from Derek’s childhood.

            “I’m sorry man…” Stiles didn’t know why he said it as he helped Derek load his things into Roscoe’s back seat, except that it felt like someone should. “All this…” He shrugged unsure what he was trying to say.

            “…It’s just stuff.” Derek sighed. “Insurance will cover most of it…”

            “Yeah but still…” Stiles stepped around to the driver’s side door and climbed in. _Insurance…_ “Huh…”

            Derek frowned. “What?”

            “I got an idea…” Stiles said. “Before we drop your stuff off there’s one other stop I want to make…”

***

            Stiles pulled up to the house slowly. There wasn’t a car in the driveway meaning her parents were probably out-which for what Stiles had planned was probably best.

            “Who is this again?” Derek asked skeptically.

            “Just stay here for a minute.” Stiles climbed out of Roscoe and stepped up to the front door. Before he had a chance to ring the doorbell the door swung slowly inward, a weary face coming into view.

            “Hey Erica…we missed you in school on Friday.”

            “Stiles…” She smiled. “…it’s the new medication my doctor has me on…I keep getting sick…”

            “Can-uh-can I come in for a second?”

            “Sure.” Erica opened the door a little wider. “Is that Derek Hale in your car?”

            “Actually that’s why I’m here…” Erica motioned Stiles to a couch and he sat down tentatively. “You dad handled the investigation for the insurance right?”

            “I think so yeah…” Erica frowned. “Why are you asking?”

            “Well-I know it was all ruled just accidental but Derek’s umm…still a little rattled you know?” This would be the tricky part Stiles knew. “I tried to get my dad to show him a copy of the fire investigator’s report to put him at ease but my Dad said he couldn’t get a hold of it right away…But uh-I remember you saying once you knew your dad’s password for his work files…”

            “You want me to get you a copy of the insurance investigation report?” Erica asked.

            “I know it’s not the same thing…but if you don’t mind I think it could really help him…” Stiles said a little guiltily.

            Erica smiled and reached for her dad’s laptop. “Sure…”

            Stiles let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Thanks…”

            Erica pressed a few quick keys and several pages popped up. Stiles hovered over her shoulder curiously.

            “…whoa…I knew the Hales were rich but that…”

            “I know…” Erica laughed softly. “and that’s just the payout for the damages…”

            Stiles hummed in agreement. “Thanks again for doing this.”

            “Sure.” Erica started to print the pages. “Just don’t tell my dad…”

            “I won’t tell yours if you don’t tell mine.” Stiles laughed. He picked up the papers and whistled at the sight of the sum again.

            “If you want to see a really huge settlement you see what Jackson’s going to get-“

            “Ugg no thanks.” Stiles grimaced. “I’ve had more then enough Jackson today already.” He grabbed the last paper. “ I want to get these to Derek…but I hope you feel better soon.”

            “Thanks Stiles.”

            Stiles waved and stepped outside, heading back down the driveway and towards where he parked Roscoe. He heard the yelling before he saw Derek.

            “Because I’m saying so Cora!” Derek snarled. “It’s not safe.”

            Derek was pacing back and forth outside Stiles’ jeep, his phone pressed up against his ear and a dark expression on his face.

            “You’re staying there until I figure all this out! I’m not risking losing you too.”

            Stiles couldn’t make out the words, but as he got closer to Roscoe he could hear the raised voice on the other end of the line.

            “No. Cora come on-“ Derek growled. “Cora?”

            From the sounds of it whoever Derek had been talking to had hung up abruptly.

            “Gah!” Derek hurled his phone angrily onto the street the screen shattering with the force.

            “Whoa…” Stiles cringed. “You okay?”

            “Do I look okay?” Derek snapped.

            “Sorry. Shesh…” Stiles was watching him carefully ready for another outburst. “Don’t kill the messenger…”

            “My younger sister…” Derek fumed waving at his now wrecked phone. “I told her she couldn’t come home until it was safe…”

            Stiles thought he understood. “Meaning she’ll miss your family’s funeral…”

            Derek nodded. “Which she now hates me for…”

            “I’m sure she’ll come around…”

            “I don’t want to talk about this.” Derek grumbled. He jerked his head at the pages Stiles was carrying. “What are those?”

            “Oh-“ Stiles passed them over to Derek. “Erica’s dad works for the insurance company that would have handled the fire at your house… I figured if we couldn’t get our hands on the fire investigator’s report to try and figure out what might have happened this could be the next best thing…”

            Stiles climbed back into Roscoe wearily and Derek spared a brief glance at the top sheet of the report before following suit.

            Derek frowned. “Speaking of figuring things out-did you make any more progress with that note?”

            Stiles sighed and fished out the paper he’d been using to play with the potentially hidden message. He been staring at the letters so much at this point he practically saw them in his sleep, but for all the possibilities he tried nothing seemed to make any sense. “Does meet tonn mean anything to you?”

            “What?”

            “I know…” Stiles sighed. “and that’s one of the better nonsense jumblings I’ve got. At least that one has _a_ word in it…” Stiles unfolded the sheet of paper and began reading off some of the other combinations. ‘There’s also on meet but then there’s an extra n… then just a bunch of random combinations of letters that might sound like something-Meteonn, Nemeton, Temeonn-“

            “Wait-” Derek’s face lit up suddenly. “Nemeton?”

            “Uh-“ Stiles looked down at his notes again. “N-e-m-e-t-o-n…I guess that’s how you’d say that right? Why does that mean something to you?”

            Derek nodded eagerly. “Start driving. I know where we need to go…”

            The route that Derek directed him on took them through the outskirts of town and finally up to a seemingly random stretch of road.

            “Pull over here.” Derek said pointing.

            Stiles did as he was told. “You mind finally telling me what this Nemeton thing is?”

            Derek hopped out of the car and began quickly walking into the woods of the preserve. “It’s an old root cellar. It was part of the old Hale mansion before they moved it a couple decades ago…”

            “And it’s located in the middle of the woods?” Stiles ducked under a branch just to see the trees start thinning out. Derek led him right up to one of the largest stumps Stiles had ever seen.

            ‘This is it…”

            Derek wrenched the door open, the old hinge squeaking with rust and sending small particles of dust flying everywhere in the fading sunlight. He had to duck to head down into the small cellar, and Stiles followed behind him not really sure what to expect. The roots of the old tree that must have once stood above them crisscrossed the earthen walls, and here and there an odd jar or two was still sitting on a dusty shelf. The space was a little cramped but in the far corner someone had stacked several watertight cases. Stiles tried the top one and found it wouldn’t budge.

            “They’re locked…”

            Pulling out his key ring Derek flipped through it to grab a small black one at the end. He slid it into the lock and it turned seamlessly. “It’s the same lock my mom used for her private files at home…”

            Inside the box were pages and pages of documents, some loose others bound together with clips and staples, or collated into larger folders.

            Stiles frowned when he saw the writing on the top sheet. “It’s all gibberish…”

            Derek shook his head. “It’s a code…my mom used to use something like this to keep privileged information safe…If it’s the same one I should be able to figure what all these say…”

            Stiles nodded slowly. “…and maybe then we can get an idea of what’s really behind all this…”

 


	4. Chapter 4

            Stiles had followed the GPS on his phone to the new address Derek sent him, but he wasn’t sure he’d have believed he was in the right place if wasn’t for him seeing Parrish sitting in a squad car outside. The building was…well not what Stiles would have expected. The sheer size of it was impressive to be sure-at a glance Stiles could make out over a dozen stories-and it was somewhat centrally located near downtown…but the whole place just seemed to have something of a gloomy feel to it. If Stiles were to guess he’d say the apartment building had once been a factory of some sort or some other industrial building-the windows and brick of the building’s exterior had a thin layer of dirt and grim that countless rainstorms hadn’t washed away. Derek’s loft was apparently on the top floor of the building, but looking at it now Stiles was questioning how much if any of the rest building was actually inhabited. It was a far cry from the quiet grandeur of the Hale house. Stiles supposed that might have been the point. He waved to Parrish as he walked up.

            “Quite the place isn’t it?”

            Parrish smiled and folded up the paper he had been reading. “It’s something…”

            “How long have the Hales owned this place?” Stiles asked. Looking at it he really couldn’t square the image of the building before him with what little he remembered about Talia Hale.

            “I’m not sure…” Parrish shrugged.

            Stiles frowned studying the building again. “Do you know what if was before?”

            “It’s been low rent apartments for at least the last fifteen years or so.” Parrish said easily. “Before that I don’t know. You could ask Derek.”

            “Yeah…” Stiles laughed. “So dad made you his babysitter I guess? What did you do pull the short straw?”

            Parrish smiled. “I don’t mind. I wasn’t working on any other cases right now and this seems important.”

            Something in the way he said it made Stiles curious. “Did you know the Hales?”

            “Not really. They were behind me in school. I met Talia Hale maybe a half dozen times over the last two years though dropping off files for her office and stuff.” Parrish sighed. “She was always really nice and she did a lot of good work for this town…”

            Stiles nodded. His father had described her in much the same way. He waved goodbye to Parrish and headed back towards the building. The lobby, or what counted for it at least, looked a little better then the outside but still had the same industrial feel to it. Stiles found the elevator in back Derek had directed him to and punched the button for the penthouse. The elevator lurched to life, climbing the levels of the building faster than Stiles would have expected to look at it. The little paperwork above the door claiming the certificate of inspection was on file and up to date appeared in order, but with the rickety look of the elevator itself Stiles had still half expected the thing to malfunction horribly somehow on his way up. The elevator was one of the models with the retractable bars you pulled shut yourself for a door instead of a proper solid one, and Stiles couldn’t help but find it unnerving as he watched each floor flash by between walls and floors of solid concrete. Finally the elevator slid to a stop in the top floor penthouse Derek had claimed for himself.

            Through the door of the elevator-and seriously in Stiles mind nothing with that many holes through it should really be considered a door- Stiles could see Derek set up at a large table in the middle of the loft’s spacious room. The floors of the place looked to be the same concrete Stiles had seen on the other levels, but there was brick work too on the walls here and there, and an impressive span of windows took up much of the far wall behind Derek, offering what Stiles had to guess was a pretty nice view of Beacon Hills.

            “How’s it going?”

            Derek looked up from the pile of papers he had spread out over the table in front of him, only a small portion of the files of his mother Talia’s they’d found at the Nemeton. File folders and boxes were stacked up on the floor around Derek’s feet as well, and the heavy weight safe Derek looked to have had installed on the wall no doubt held the rest of them.

            “Slow.” Derek sighed and pushed the papers in front of him back. “This code’s different from any of the ones I’ve seen my mom use before. It works similarly but I haven’t fully cracked it yet.”

            “You want help?” Stiles asked already knowing what the answer would be.

            “No I can handle it.” Derek said shortly, a glint in his eye. Since finding the files Stiles must have offered to help Derek decode them a half dozen times at least. Derek kept staunchly refusing. On some level Stiles could understand-the files were the last thing Derek would have from his family in a way-and someone had seen fit to entrust them to him. Derek’s fierce protection of them made sense, even if privately the delay in uncovering what the files actually said was a little frustrating to Stiles.

            “What brought you over here anyways?” Derek frowned as he spoke, pulling Stiles back from his thoughts. “I told you I’d call you if I found something…”

            It was true, he had-and a brand new cell phone sat on the table next to Derek with Stiles’ number in it. A clear testament to that commitment, should Derek ever actually crack his mother’s code. Still, Stiles had never exactly been known for his patience…

            “I thought of something else actually.” Stiles tossed his backpack down onto the floor, claiming one of the apartment’s only other chairs for himself. He pulled a bottle of water out of his backpack and took a single slow sip. The whole space around them still only looked half lived in, although Stiles couldn’t say if that was a product of Derek not yet being fully moved in, or just a comment on his skills at decorating.

            Derek turned back to his work scratching out some more possibilities for lines of text he was working on deciphering. “Yeah?”

            “About the video someone sent you.”

            That got Derek’s attention again. He looked back at Stiles, his eyebrows raised in silent question.

            “…well it just occurred to me that we never tried to run down the phone number that sent it you.” Stiles said. “Chances are if whoever was after your family is smart it’s just a burner but on the off chance it’s not I figured we should look…”

            Derek eyed him skeptically. “And you have the skills to do that?”

            “Ah-well no _I_ don’t per se.” Stiles grinned awkwardly.

            “Meaning what?”

            “I know someone who can help.” Stiles smiled in a way he hoped looked innocent. “He’s got all the skills we’d need to find out this kind of stuff…”

            “Without tipping you dad off?” Derek asked pointedly.

            “Absolutely!” Stiles laughed nervously. “He-uh-he just might need a little incentive is all…”

            Derek sighed. “How much will it cost?”

            “What?” Stiles was honestly baffled. “No nothing like that. Well I don’t think so. I don’t actually _know_ what he’ll want but I’m sure we can all work something out…”

            “Work something out when?”

            “Now.” Stiles shrugged guiltily. “He’s coming here.”

            “You invited someone over to _my_ loft without discussing any kind of terms?” Derek glowered. “How well do you even know this guy-“

            “We go to school together. And obviously he doesn’t know about anything with the video yet-“ Stiles hurried to finish explaining as he heard the elevator start to descend again. “That’s probably him. Look we’re lab partners-he just thinks he’s coming over so we can work on our science assignment-“

            Behind him the elevator screeched a little and Stiles thought he could hear it starting to climb back up. Derek gathered up the files in front of him carefully, and along with the ones on the floor began safely locking them back into his new safe. He glared at Stiles the whole time, slowly making his way back to the table and his seat as the elevator returned, revealing Danny bit by bit, who looked just as confused by Derek and the place around him as Derek did angry.

            “You really thought this was the best way to do this?” Derek snapped.

            “Well I wasn’t going to be able to get him to come otherwise-“ Stiles threw back in a hushed voice. “Listen just-go with this alright?” Stiles fidgeted with his water bottle a bit nervously. “and if he needs a little more incentive I just want to apologize in advance-“

            Derek balked. “For what?”

            “Stiles…?” Stiles whipped back around to face the elevator as Danny slowly climbed out eyeing both Derek and Stiles carefully.

            “Danny! Hey…glad you could make it. You find it okay?”

            “Yeah…” Danny’s eyes flicked from Stiles back to Derek. “You’re Derek Hale right?”

            Derek nodded, his eyes boring into Stiles for an answer. Stiles pointedly ignored him. “So uh Danny…I was thinking before we got started on our project there’s something else you could help us out with…”

            “Us?” Danny seemed to study them for a moment. “So are you two like a thing or something?”

            “What? No-no nothing like that.” Stiles stammered feeling his face heating up a little. If it was possible he avoided Derek’s pressing gaze even more. “We-well I- just thought you could trace a phone number for us.”

            “No.”

            “Oh come on Danny-“ Stiles tried for a charming smile. “You’ve done this kind of thing before…”

            Danny crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. “I was a kid. And those charges were dropped anyways. How do you even know about that?”

            “I have my ways.” Stiles grinned knowingly. “Now come on Danny…we just need to know who sent a particular video to Derek…”

            Danny frowned. “What’s so important about the video?”

            Stiles paused. “What?”

            “The video.” Danny repeated slowly. “What’s it of that’s it’s so important you had me come halfway across town here just to try and convince me to track down who sent it you?”

            “Oh…uh…” Stiles trailed off, looking to Derek quickly for help and just finding the same questioning and impassive stare Derek had been giving him since this whole thing started. _Think-c’mon think…_ “It’s uh…it’s a video…of Derek… of Derek naked?” Stiles could hear his voice crack a little awkwardly as the words spilled from his mouth but his mind was already racing ahead. _Yeah that could work…_ “A video of Derek naked that um-someone took without him knowing about it…so now he just needs to know who has it…”

            “So what?” Danny said. “It’s like revenge porn or something? Why not get your dad and the sheriff’s department involved?”

            “Well you know how it is…” Stiles walked slowly around the table placing himself behind Derek. He patted Derek’s shoulders and smiled. Derek looked liked he was going to spit nails any minute. “It’s embarrassing. Even for somebody as good looking as this stud…”

            “Right…” Danny still seemed unconvinced.

            Stiles eyed his water bottle sitting on the other side of the table. If Derek wanted to kill him already, Stiles could only imagine how he’d react to Stiles’ original idea to win Danny over… Stiles reached for the bottle and gulped some down a little nervously. “Anyway Danny I’m sure you’d agree-“ Stiles made a move to put the cap back onto his water bottle, and instead let the bottle slip through his fingers-right into Derek’s lap. Water splashed down Derek’s chest as the bottle fell, thoroughly soaking Derek’s shirt, and making the pale white fabric almost transparent. The shirt clung tight to Derek like a second skin, highlighting his muscles in sharp relief as he jumped up from his seat.

            “Stiles!” Derek growled angrily.

            “Sorry!” Stiles really was, even if he had done it intentionally. He spared a quick look at Danny, noting his little blush but interested look at Derek all the same. Stiles had to fight the urge to grin, knowing it would probably only make Derek madder. “Here why don’t you take that off-“

            Derek glared at Stiles, who gave the smallest of nods towards Danny. Derek sighed and reluctantly pulled his shirt off over his head.

            And just like that Danny wasn’t the only one blushing. Stiles’ eyes flashed over Derek’s impressive physique, taking in the broad expanse of exposed skin. His eyes lingered a second longer on the defined v at Derek’s hips where his jeans had slipped just a little lower by his sudden jump from his seat.

            Derek met Stiles’ eye and cocked an eyebrow, making Stiles suddenly look away and cough to break the tension. “Huh…uh…you-you should probably go grab another shirt I guess…”

            Derek didn’t say anything but tossed his soaked shirt over his shoulder and made his way over to the spiral staircase in the corner of the room. As Derek started to climb Stiles finally turned back to Danny, whose eyes were still firmly locked on Derek’s back-where Stiles himself had noted, there was impressive tattoo of the triskelion between Derek’s shoulder blades.

            “So what do you say Danny?”

            Danny groaned. “You’re a horrible person…”

            “I know it keep me up sometimes.” Stiles smirked knowingly. He had a feeling different thoughts entirely might be keeping him up tonight. “Is that a yes then?”

            Danny rolled his eyes but sat down and dug out his laptop. “I’ll need the number that sent you the video and about what time you got it.”

            “Here.” Stiles fished out a card where he’d written all the relevant info down.

            “One minute…” Danny punched the information into whatever program he was running on his computer. “Okay here we go…looks like the phone that sent the video was a burner…you won’t be able to get any information about who has it off this.”

            Stiles sighed. “Yeah I thought that might be the case…thanks anyways Danny.”

            “Give me just one more minute…” Danny pressed a few more keys.

            Stiles frowned. “What are you looking for?”

            “This.” Danny spun the screen around to show Stiles a series of numbers that meant nothing to him. Seeing his blank look Danny explained. “See here…the phone that sent you that message was one of a series. Whoever bought it got a couple other burner phones with it. This one looks to have been shut down but a couple of the others are still running…”

            “Do you what the numbers for those other phones are?”

            Danny shook his head. “Not from this. But I can set up a program to notify me if any messages are sent from these other phones. If they are if might help you track down whoever has that video…”

            “Thanks.” Stiles looked up at the sound of movement on the stairs again, and saw Derek slowly making his way back down, now fully clothed again. Stiles gave him a thumbs up behind Danny’s head. Derek just rolled his eyes, but honestly he looked less angry than Stiles had expected…

***

            The Sheriff pulled his car to a slow stop. “Just arrived here Tara…”

            “Here” in this case being the lot of an abandoned building on the far side of town. The lot was completely empty save for one other car. Someone had called it in to the sheriff’s station, as technically the building was still private property and the car had apparently been parked here for a couple days.

            “Copy that. Just be careful sir.”

            “Always am.” The Sheriff stepped out of his squad car and walked up to the seemingly forgotten red four door. He kept one hand within easy reach of his gun just in case. The windows of the vehicle were completely fogged over, but when he reached down to try the driver side door it swung open easily.

            “Oh hell-“

            The first thing that hit him was the smell, followed closely by the sight of the two bodies producing it in the backseat.

            “Sheriff?”

            “Tara call the coroner.” The Sheriff sighed. “I’ve got two dead bodies here…” He leaned forward into the car a little trying to get a clear look at the faces. “Well I’ll be…looks like Unger and Reddick…”

            “Those two petty criminals?” Tara sounded just as surprised as the Sheriff. “Who would want them dead?”

            “You’ve got me…but judging by the smell they’ve been this way for a couple days now. Probably since the car was parked here…”

            “I’ll see if I can find any working security cameras in that area and pull up the footage…”

            They both knew that was a long shot at best. Any camera in the building were long since dead, and with the relative isolation of the lot the usual street cameras the police had access to probably wouldn’t turn anything up…

            The Sheriff sighed. “What the hell’s happening to this town?” Every day lately seemed to bring some new strange and dark development.

            The dead men had no answer for him…

***

            Derek was settled back behind his desk, his mother’s files spread out in front of him again. Danny had left not long after he’d pulled up the phone information for Stiles. He’d rightfully guessed Stiles’ focus wasn’t really on their school project at the moment. Stiles had promised him they could finish it in study hall tomorrow. Currently, Stiles was pacing back and forth across the room waiting for Derek to find something-anything-in the files.

            “You know I won’t work any faster with you doing that.” Derek sighed.

            “Sorry…” Stiles flopped back down into his chair. “I’m just antsy.”

            Derek gave him rare small smile. “I hadn’t noticed…

            Stiles let out a short snort of laughter. “And sorry again about the water earlier…”

            “It’s fine…” Derek’s look changed to something Stiles couldn’t read. “It got us some potentially useful information…”

            “Yeah…” Stiles trailed off. “Speaking of…”

            “No I haven’t cracked it all yet.” Derek huffed.

            “But you have to have _something_.” Stiles groaned. “You’ve been scratching little notes down for like the past half hour…”

            “Not enough to make sense of all of this yet.” Derek tossed his pencil down and picked up the page he’d been writing on. “So far the only thing I’ve been able to get is a name that keeps coming up again and again. Looks like my mom was looking into something about a Gordon Miller…”

            “You ever hear of him?” Stiles asked.

            Derek shook his head. “No…”

            Stiles grabbed his phone and quickly typed “Gordon Miller + Beacon Hills” into his search engine. “Let’s see what the web has to say…” the first hit that came up was an old article from the local paper. Stiles clicked on it. He skimmed the article looking to see just who this Gordon Miller apparently was. And then he saw it…Stiles ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “Damn it…”

            Derek frowned. “What?”

            “Gordon Miller and his wife Margaret died in a one car accident on June 14th 1995.”

            “So what?” Derek asked. “My mom was looking into some old accident?”

            “Not just any accident…” Stiles sighed.

            Derek’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

            “June 15th 1995 is Jackson Whittemore’s birthday.” Stiles said finally. “Gordon and Margaret Miller were his biological parents.”

            Derek was quiet for a moment, and Stiles let the revelation just hang there, trying to piece together what it all meant himself.

            “Do you have any idea why your mother would have been looking into the Millers’ deaths?” Stiles finally asked. “A sixteen year old accident isn’t exactly the normal focus of the DA…”

            “No.” Derek waved a hand back at the stack of files still in front of him. “But hopefully the answer is somewhere in here…someone wouldn’t have killed my mother if this was just a random case…”

            Something clicked at the back of Stiles mind. “I might have another way…”

            “What?” Derek asked.

            Stiles pulled out his phone again this time pulling up the contact list. “Erica.” Stiles dialed the number and flipped the volume over to speakerphone. “Her dad handled the investigation for that case too. She started to mention some big settlement Jackson’s going to get when I talked to her yesterday…”

            “If there was a settlement then something else had to be involved.” Derek said. “No one pays out a settlement for a one car accident unless something else is at play…”

            Stiles nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

            The phone rang, and then rang again, both of them waiting with bated breath. Finally there was the click of Erica picking up.

            “Stiles?”

            “Erica hey-“ Stiles jumped in eagerly. “Listen the other day you started to mention a settlement Jackson’s going to get…”

            “When he turns eighteen yeah…” Stiles could hear the confusion in Erica’s voice. “What about it?”

  
            “Do you know who’s paying the settlement?” Stiles asked. He was practically holding his breath now waiting for Erica’s answer.

            “Stiles…” There was something else in Erica’s voice now besides just confusion. Trepidation maybe? Stiles couldn’t be sure…”You don’t know?”

            “I don’t know what Erica?”

            “The-um the settlement’s with the sheriff’s department…the…the investigation found them negligent…”

            A shock like ice water in his veins seemed to roll through Stiles, rooting him to the spot. He stared down at his phone unable to meet Derek’s gaze. “What?”

            “There was a delay in responding…something with the dispatch…” Erica said softly.

            “…If they’d gotten there on time the Millers’ would have lived…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone's still enjoying this as much as I am- I know this chapter's a little shorter but it just worked out best that way plot wise. Next chapter things will get even more intense, and the funeral for all the Hales will finally be held.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long to get up-I had it almost two thirds of the way done when my computer deleted everything for some reason. Anyways it's done now and I hope you all enjoy. Apologies in advance for where this chapter ends-I just couldn't resist haha.

            Stiles was reeling. He stared down at his phone, Erica’s voice fading to nothing as he tried to process what she had just said. _It was the sheriff department’s fault the Millers died?_ What did that even mean? And why had Talia Hale been looking into the case? Stiles finally heard the soft click of his phone as Erica hung up. He barely noticed his mind racing. _If the Hales were really killed for what she was working on and this it then-_

            He finally looked up meeting Derek’s gaze with difficulty. He’d known what he’d find there. Derek’s eyes were cold, devoid of any of the small sparks of humor Stiles had seen there even a few minutes earlier.

            “Derek-“

            “Get out.”

            Stiles winced. Derek’s voice was razor firm. He swallowed and tried again. “Look Derek-“

            “GET OUT!” Derek snapped. His face was contorted in a mask of rage, pain and hurt. And something else-regret maybe? Stiles wasn’t sure-and with the anger rolling off Derek in waves now he didn’t want to stick around to find out.

            Stiles took a few steps back and grabbed his backpack. He spared one more glance over his shoulder at Derek guiltily. “You have to believe-“

            “Get. Out.” Derek rasped. He glared at Stiles with unflinching eyes, his face still a mess of emotions. Stiles could feel his own emotions rolling up inside him. He threw his bag over his shoulder rushed the few remaining feet to the elevator pulling the sliding screen shut with a bang. As the elevator started to descend Stiles saw Derek turn his back to him. A moment later in a sudden violent motion he swiped his mother’s papers and files off the desk sending them flying every which way. Stiles watched them slowly flutter to the ground as he slid out of view.

            Stiles let his head bang back against the elevator wall his own anger and frustration getting the better of him. He shouldn’t be surprised Derek didn’t want him around right now. _What did you think you’re close now?_ He silently berated himself. _You’ve just been helping him out for a few days. That barely makes you friends let alone “we can work things out when my dad’s department may have been involved in your mom’s death” kind of friends._ Stiles sighed. He knew that it wasn’t really fair. His dad would barely have been a deputy sixteen years ago, and even so Stiles refused to even consider him being somehow involved in any of this. The rest of the department though… Honestly even that thought made Stiles feel sick. But all signs so far had pointed them towards Talia Hale’s case being directly connected to the fire. And if the sheriff’s department was really the cause of the settlement…Stiles shuddered. It just seemed like too much. He couldn’t focus on the pieces of the puzzles. His own emotions just kept getting in the way, stopping him from seeing the bigger picture. _There had to be a bigger picture here…_

            The walk through the lobby was a blur. Parrish waved and called out some greeting to Stiles as he walked back past his squad car outside, but Stiles barely heard him. He raised his hand back in silent acknowledgement and kept walking. He climbed into Roscoe and turned his keys in the ignition, the familiar rumble of the Jeep helping ease his mood ever so little.

            He drove back home on autopilot, barely aware as he passed the familiar signs and streets of Beacon Hills around him, even the other cars on the road fading from Stiles’ conscious mind. He just kept wrestling with the same basic question. _What did the Sheriff department’s settlement mean in relation to the Hale fire?_ It was a big leap from a mistake in arriving late or some other unintentional negligence to burning a whole family alive… but who else would have ties to the Miller’s old case and want to stop Talia Hale from looking at it again? And even assuming the worst of his dad’s department the facts still didn’t add up. His dad had served longer then anyone else currently on the force and he’d just been starting out sixteen years ago…

            Stiles pulled into his driveway and hopped out of Roscoe. His dad was waiting for him at the kitchen table when he got inside, the morning’s paper in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

            “Back already?” The sheriff called out warmly still looking down at the paper, no doubt finishing whatever article he’d started reading at breakfast. “I was thinking maybe pizza for dinner tonight unless you want something else-“

            The Sheriff broke off as he finally looked up and caught sight of Stiles. He frowned studying Stiles for a moment.

            “What’s wrong?”

            “Nothing…”

            “Hey-don’t give me that.” The Sheriff wagged a finger at Stiles a small smile on his face. “I’m your dad I can tell when something’s bothering you…”

            Stiles let his backpack drop to the floor by the door and kicked off his shoes next to it. “I guess…”

            “You want to talk about it?” There was such a quiet reassurance in his dad’s voice Stiles almost hated to bring it up. But he had to know…

            “There-uh-there was a case sixteen years…The Millers…”

            The Sheriff sighed and pushed back the chair next to him, motioning Stiles forward to sit. “… Jackson talk to you about this?”

            _Jackson?_ Right-Stiles supposed from his dad’s perspective that would be his one possible connection to the case. The sheriff seemed to take Stiles’ silence for confirmation.

            “I always wondered how much he knew about what happened…”

            “What did happen?” Stiles asked softly.

            “I was just starting out back then…” Stiles nodded that much he knew. His dad sighed again his face falling. “I was off duty that day but I’ll always remember the call…some of the early ones…the ones like that you just don’t forget…”

            His dad didn’t talk about this aspect of the job much-the cases that stuck with him…but Stiles knew it affected him. Beacon Hills was a quiet town for the most part, but his dad had still seen his fair share of horror over the years…the last few days with Barrow and the Hale fire were evidence enough of that. Stiles waited for him to continue.

            “…The Millers’ were on a pretty isolated stretch of road…they’d lost control of the car somehow and gone over a small cliff…” The Sheriff’s hand tapped against his water glass softly. He may not have been there but Stiles knew he must have seen the pictures after the fact. It couldn’t have been pretty. “It took awhile to find them…Gordon Miller was dead on arrival. Margaret Miller died on the way to the hospital but they managed to keep her body stabilized on life support machines long enough to save and deliver Jackson…”

            Stiles shuddered. It was no secret that Jackson was adopted, their whole class had known for years now, but hearing about how it all came to pass was another matter entirely. Stiles felt a wave of sympathy for Jackson, one that even Jackson’s assholeish tendencies couldn’t quash.

            “So why…” Stiles wasn’t sure how to bring up the rest, or even if he should.

            His dad must have sensed what he meant. “…Why the settlement?” Stiles nodded. “The investigation concluded it took too long to get the Millers after the 9-1-1 call…

            Stiles frowned. “But if you said the road was isolated-“

            The Sheriff shrugged amicably. “Even so it took longer then it should have…if the response had been faster Margret Miller at least would have had a good chance at surviving…we’d made runs out to that area before and it never took as long…

            “Still-“ Stiles broke off a suddenly. Something didn’t add up. “…Where did you say the crash took place?”

            “Over on the stretch of highway that bumps up against the preserve…” The Sheriff eyed Stiles curiously. “Why?”

            Stiles pulled up a mental image of the road in his head. It _was_ pretty isolated. There were no houses along that trek for a few miles in either direction. “So then who called 9-1-1?”

            The Sheriff frowned. “What?”

            “Well there were no cell phones or anything back then…”Stiles said slowly. “…and no nearby houses to notice the crash…”

            “I don’t know…maybe another driver.” His dad was studying Stiles closely now.

            _But if that were the case why didn’t they stick around to help direct the police?_ _For that matter how did the Millers’ lose control of their car?_ Stiles supposed there was always the chance of some animal running out in front of them from the forest or some other fluke coincidence…but the more little pieces he learned the less the Millers’ case made sense-at least as an accident.

            “What are you thinking?” His dad asked, concern flickering across his face.

            “Nothing.” Then seeing his dad’s skeptical expression he forced a smiled and rolled his eyes. “Really. But thanks for telling me about…you know…”

            His dad nodded, seeming to relax a bit at Stiles’ words.

            Stiles stood slowly and turned to head back upstairs, grabbing up his backpack again as walked past it. “I’m gonna run this upstairs and get a jump on some of my other homework before dinner…” By which of course he meant he had more research to do. He was already trying to think of ways he could get more information about what happened with the Millers.

            “So pizza then?”

            Stiles smiled, reminded yet again in light of everything just how lucky he was to have his dad.

            “Pizza sounds great.”

***

            “So did it all work out then?”

            “Hmm?” Stiles hummed around the pen in his mouth, and looked up from his textbook to see Danny sliding into the chair across from him in the school’s library. They had agreed to meet and work on their science project today, but Stiles had just felt off all day. The Millers were still rattling around in his head, taking over his thoughts even as he tried to read the paragraphs on ionic bonds in front of him. Stiles sighed. This was going to be slow going…

            “Hey Danny.”

            Danny returned a friendly smile and pulled out his own textbook and notes. “So how about it? The stuff with Derek?”

            Stiles frowned. “What?”

            “The new text wasn’t to you guys?”

            Stiles could feel his pulse quicken at another possible lead, the Millers temporarily forgotten. “What new text?”

            Danny pulled open his laptop and turned it to face Stiles. “It came from one of the other phones in the series I was telling you about…here.” He pointed to the small conversation-only two quick messages.

            _It’s done._

And the reply time stamped just a minute later…

_Good. Proceed as agreed._

“I thought maybe someone had gotten in touch with you guys about getting rid of that video…”

            “No.” Stiles didn’t have to hide his disappointment, it worked just as well in the context of the lie he’d had to tell Danny as the truth. He’d hoped the texts might finally shed some more light on everything that had happened…but by themselves these were practically worthless. Whoever was texting-since they didn’t even know that much Stiles bitterly reminded himself-could have been talking about practically anything.

            “Right….uh sorry then.” Danny was watching Stiles closely. He snapped his laptop shut again, pulling Stiles attention back to the moment. “We are actually going to work on our project today right?” Danny asked pointedly.

            Stiles gave himself a quick shake, forcing himself to refocus on the task in front of him. This at least he could do. “Yeah. Let me see what you have…”

            After they finished up, Stiles gathered his things and headed home. Even Harris would have to be happy with what they’d come up with, and if not Stiles hoped he could at least rely on Harris’ actually liking Danny to soften his hatred of Stiles when it came time to grade them. There was no lacrosse practice after school that day-everyone was heading out to get ready.

            Stiles pulled out his best shirt and tie when he got home and dusted of his blue sports coat. Black would probably look better, but Stiles didn’t actually own a suit and he wasn’t going to rent one for a funeral. His dad knocked on his door just as he finishing trying his dress shoes.

            “You ready sport?”

            “Yeah.”

            His dad drove. Roscoe didn’t really feel appropriate for this sort of thing. The service was being held at the town’s largest church, Stiles didn’t have any idea if the Hales had actually ever gone there but being local celebrities and heroes most of the town was coming out for their funerals. Everyone it seemed knew, or had interacted with one of the Hales at some point.

            The pews were filling up rapidly by the time Stiles and his dad arrived. Scott and Melissa waved them over to a spot in back where they had saved a few extra seats. Stiles wasn’t surprised to see them here-he knew the Hales had been big supporters of the hospital as well as almost every other venture in town at some point or other. Stiles’ dad slid down next to Melissa, the two of them exchanging a few brief words Stiles couldn’t make out over the other last minute arrivals finding seats.

            Scott smiled. “Hey.”

            “Hey.” Stiles nodded back.

            “You okay?” Scott asked, lowering his voice to a whisper though with the amount of noise around them it really wasn’t needed. “You seem…I don’t know…distracted lately.”

            “Just a lot on my mind.” Stiles forced a smile. “I’m surprised you’re not sitting with Allison. Where is she at?”

            “Over with her family.” Scott nodded to the far side of the church but Stiles couldn’t see past the sea of bodies in between them. “We’re going to meet up after. You should-“

            Whatever Scott had been planning on saying Stiles never got to hear it. He fell silent along with everyone else as the minister made his way out onto the stage. Stiles saw Derek sitting on stage next to an empty chair that was presumably for the minister himself. Ten urns were spread out down in front of the stage, a smiling picture of one of Derek’s dead family members raised behind each one. The minister began to speak, but all of Stiles' attention remained focused on Derek.

            He looked utterly miserable. The layout of the stage put him on display before everyone as much as the urns and Stiles felt sure that he hated it. Derek was wearing the suit Stiles had helped him pick up just two days ago. Seeing it on Derek it was all crisp tailored lines that accentuated his body perfectly, causing Stiles to flush guiltily. There had to be a special place in hell for appreciating the way a guy looked in a suit at his families’ funeral.

            Stiles followed along with the service, standing when asked even singing some strange hymn with all the other mourners when called upon, but his eyes never strayed far from Derek. Stiles had expected some sort of eulogy from Derek for his family members, but when it came to that point in the service the minister opened the floor for anyone to speak, to share some heart warming story about one of the dead. It was a nice idea Stiles supposed, and a few of the scrapes of stories he caught sounded nice. But Stiles just couldn’t stay focused. Being here like this he kept being reminded of his mom’s funeral. It had been one of the worst days of Stiles’ young life, and he couldn’t imagine what it would have felt like to have everyone’s eyes upon him, watching him and gauging his reactions. Stiles eyes flicked back up to Derek. _Seriously who had thought it was a good idea to put him up on the stage like that?_ Derek was staring down at the ground like he had been for most of the service. He’d barely moved since the whole thing started.

            The reception afterwards wasn’t much better. The collected mourners all headed downstairs and milled about in small pockets of conversation. Someone had opened up the kitchen and small trays of food were set up here and there. Derek stood alone as a line slowly formed in front of him, everyone wanting to say how sorry they were for his loss. _He wouldn’t be alone if he hadn’t barred Cora from coming home_. Stiles thought-but really he could hardly fault Derek for wanting to keep his remaining family safe no matter how hard that call had to be. Derek didn’t seem to be talking much, just nodding mostly, working in a thank you here or there. He looked liked he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.

            “Hey…” Scott found Stiles again, carrying a small plate of food for himself and one for Stiles. “Here.”

            “Thanks.” Stiles took a few small bites his eyes roaming back to Derek.

            “So what’s going on with you two anyways?” Scott asked noticing Stiles’ gaze.

            “Nothing I told you. It’s not like that…”

            “I know I didn’t mean it like that.” Scott shrugged. “But you’ve been spending a lot of time together…what’s going on?”

            “I was just helping him out a little. You know moving and stuff.”

            “It’s more than that. I saw Danny showing you some text or something in the library. And you still haven’t talked to me about what happened with Barrow…” Scott crossed his arms stubbornly. “C’mon Stiles I’m your best friend. Whatever’s going on you can tell me…”

            Stiles wanted to-he really did. Keeping secrets from Scott felt wrong on almost every level. For as long as Stiles could remember they’d told each other everything. But this was different. Whatever was happening, there was real danger involved, and Stiles didn’t want to drag his best friend into that. He was searching for something to say to Scott when he noticed who was next in line to talk to Derek and froze.

            “No way…”

            Scott frowned following Stiles gaze. “What?”

            “Do you know who that woman standing with Allison’s family is?”

            “Her aunt?” Scott gave Stiles a puzzled look. “Kate or something I think? Why?”

            “That’s Derek’s ex.”

            “You sure?” Scott turned back to look at the woman in question with Stiles. “I’ve only met her once or twice when I was over at the Argents’ for dinner…but isn’t she older? I think she said something about working on her PhD or something…”

            Scott was right that would make her several years older then Derek, but it was also in line with Derek saying they’d met at the university. “I’m sure. There was a picture of her with Derek in his dorm room.” Looking at her now next to Allison Stiles could see a bit of a resemblance. “Why would she be here?”

            “Maybe she got to know the rest of his family while they were dating?” Scott offered. “Why would that be that weird?”

            “Derek broke up with her because he found her cheating on him.” Stiles said angrily. _And seriously besides just being a genuinely awful thing to do-who would cheat on Derek Hale?_

Scott winced. “Okay that is pretty bad…”

            Stiles set his plate down and started to try and work his way through the crowd.

            “What are you doing?” Scott called a little breathlessly after him.

            “I want to hear what they’re saying…”

            Scott dropped his own plate next to Stiles’. “Wait for me…”

            Stiles managed to make it to the far side of the room where Derek was standing with relative ease. In lieu of trying to jump into the line itself he simply sidled up next to it as closely as he could. There was a pillar a few feet away he leaned back against trying his best to look uninterested, and like he wasn’t standing there just to eavesdrop. Scott joined him just a minute later.

            “…what are you doing here?” Stiles could hear Derek growl quietly. Whatever anger he must still feel towards Kate, Derek apparently didn’t want to make a scene at his families’ funeral.

            “Came to pay my respects same as anyone else.” Kate said. Stiles risked a quick peak around the pillar to try and get a better look at her. She was smiling consolingly, but it didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes. “You remember my family of course…” She motioned back to Allison and her parents who were standing just behind Kate and another older man Stiles didn’t recognize. The man smiled and stepped forward to shake Derek’s hand.

            “Gerard.”

            Derek just nodded, taking his hand mutely.

            “You know I worked with you mother a few times over the years…She was a very impressive woman.” Gerard was acting every bit the genial grandfather, but there was an intensity in his stare that Stiles found uncomfortable.

            Derek frowned. “In what way?”

            “Oh our family business came up against a few local regulations from time to time like any other company.” He laughed. “Your mother could be…quite tenacious…”

            Stiles turned back to Scott curiously. “What family business?”

            “Allison’s family sells weapons to law enforcement and stuff I think. And her mom owns some kind of boutique…”

            “Hmm.” Stiles glanced back but the line was moving forward again. The Argents had apparently finished. Allison was coming over to them smiling. She must have spotted them while her grandfather and Derek were talking.

            “Well that was a little awkward.” Allison smiled and slipped her arm though Scott’s.

            “I didn’t know your aunt dated Derek.” Stiles said.

            “Yeah. It ended pretty recently I think. Kate wasn’t too happy…” Allison turned to Scott and smiled. “I’ve got to go home and change but I’ll see you later?”

            “Yeah sure.” Scott grinned back, the same dopy smile he always had when Allison was nearby. Stiles couldn’t help but grin too looking at the two of them, even if their abundance of happiness and couplely antics could be a little insufferable sometimes. Allison gave Scott a quick peck on the cheek before heading off to rejoin her family.

            “What’s later?” Stiles asked.

            “There’s a party…” Scott said sheepishly. “I’d invite you but I know how much you hate these kind of things…”

            Stiles laughed. “Yeah not exactly my usual scene…”

            “More so since it’s at Jackson’s.” Scott chuckled.

            “Jackson’s throwing the party?” Something clicked in Stiles head. _Jackson was the Millers’ son_ he reminded himself. Stiles’ father had assumed Jackson was the one to tell him about the accident and the settlement agreement-things Stiles really wanted to know more about…and Jackson would have to have some of that information right? He frowned an idea forming in his head. “You know what? Maybe I’ll come after all…

***

            _This was a stupid idea._ Stiles stood brooding off in a corner of the room slowly nursing the water he’d poured into a red solo cup for himself. Music was blaring loudly and lights flashed around as his classmates danced and drank. Stiles just wasn’t in the mood. He wasn’t really sure what he’d been expecting-this was a party after all. It wasn’t like there was going to be a file lying around with “Everything you might ever want to know about Jackson’s biological parents” stamped across it. He hadn’t seen any sign of Jackson himself either. Stiles had met up with Scott and Allison briefly but they’d been having a good time and Stiles didn’t really feel like third wheeling it or bringing them down tonight. He sighed and took another sip of his water. Honestly he should probably just go.

            So of course that was when Danny spotted him and came over to say hi. Another boy Stiles didn’t recognize was trailing behind him.

            “Stiles hey…” Danny smiled. “Don’t usually see you at these things.”

            “I’m expanding my horizons.” Stiles said sarcastically. “Working on documenting the teenager in its natural habitat…”

            Danny, who was plenty familiar with Stiles’ unique brand of humor at this point, just laughed. “Right… anyways this is Brett-my boyfriend.”

            “Nice to finally meet you.” The other boy-Brett-extended his hand and Stiles shook it. “I’ve hearing a lot about all the characters of Beacon Hills. It’s nice to finally put some faces with names. Your dad’s the sheriff right?”

            “Yeah.” Stiles nodded and searched for something he could say back to Brett. Some story Danny might have mentioned… “I-uh-“ Unfortunately only one thing was popping into Stiles’ head. “I hear you’re pretty flexible…”

            Stiles cringed the moment he said it. _Why can I never just stay quiet?_ He waited for some angry response from either Brett or Danny but it never came. Instead Brett just laughed.

            “Flexible in _all_ things and _all_ the right ways…” Brett winked at Danny who promptly blushed. “Been telling stories about me?”

            “Uh-“

            Before Danny could say anything else Brett planted a quick kiss on him. “It’s alright. Modesty isn’t exactly something I’m known for.” Brett grinned again and leered back at Stiles. “If you’re that curious you could always ask Danny for a demonstration. I’m game if he is…”

            Now it was Stiles’ turn to blush. “Oh-ah-heh…” he fumbled desperately for something to say but for once he was coming up empty. “I-uh I’m just going to go head over there…”

            Stiles stumbled away, narrowly missing colliding into a chair, still feeling off balance from Brett’s proposal. He could hear Brett laughing fondly behind him.

            “STILNISKI!”

            Before Stiles could react a very drunk Greenberg was wrapping an arm around Stiles’ shoulders, swaying a little unsteadily on his feet. “Hey man…” Greenberg slurred happily. “What-what r’ you doing here?”

            “Hi-“ Stiles patted Greenberg’s arm and tried to gently ease him down into the chair he’d almost knocked over. “Why don’t you sit down for a minute…”

            “S’probablly a good idea…” Greenberg laughed and flopped down into the chair.

            “Yeah…” Stiles scanned the crowd around him looking to see if any of Greenberg’s friends were nearby. He spotted one, another guy from the lacrosse team standing by the far wall talking to his girlfriend and tried to wave him over.

            “You looking for s’meone?”

            “I don’t know…” Stiles sighed. He hadn’t expected to have this conversation with drunk Greenberg of all people. “I don’t suppose you know anything about Jackson’s biological parents do you?”

            Greenberg frowned seeming to struggle for a minute to follow Stiles. “Jackson’s parents…?”

            “The Millers not the Whittemores.” Stiles waved at Greenberg’s friend again and this time finally got his attention. He signaled to Stiles to wait a minute.

            “Should just ask Jackson…” Greenberg said simply, smiling like he’d just solved all the world’s problems.

            Stiles snorted a little watching Greenberg. Clearly he was a very happy drunk. “Yeah but in case you haven’t noticed he’s not exactly my biggest fan.” Then again if Greenberg was any indication Jackson might be in a more receptive mood tonight after all. Stiles scanned the crowd again looking for some sign of him and finding none. “Where is he anyways?”

            “Jackson?” Greenberg asked. “S’upstairs…” Greenberg’s friend finally joined them. Greenberg grinned. “MARK!”

            His friend laughed. “Hey big guy…let’s get you some water okay?”

            “Kay…”

            Mark nodded his thanks to Stiles and slowly helped Greenberg up. Stiles’ eye flicked to the stairs behind him. _Well here goes nothing I guess…_ He made his way across the room and climbed up the fancy staircase, thankfully without running into any more furniture or drunken teammates along the way. Looking around the second floor there were half a dozen possible doors to try. Only one had any light coming from beneath the door though, a thin strip illuminating the otherwise dark hallway right outside it. Stiles figured it was the logical place to start. He tried the handle half expecting it to be locked, but it turned easily in his hands.

            “Hey Jackson I-“ He stopped suddenly as the door opened enough for him to see inside the room. “Oh god-“

            Jackson was completely naked-pressed back against his bed by a shirtless Ethan who was the only thing stopping Stiles from seeing all of Jackson. Jackson’s hands had been busy unhooking Ethan’s belt, but stopped at Stiles’ sudden entrance.

            “Sorry!” Stiles clapped a hand over his eyes not wanting to see anything more then he already had.

            Jackson sighed as Ethan rolled off oh him. Ethan gave Stiles a slightly embarrassed smile but Jackson seemed completely unfazed, only using the blankets to cover up his nude body finally at Ethan’s prompting.

            “This had better be good Stilinski.” Jackson growled. “I’m kind of in the middle of something here…”

            “Uh-“ Stiles laughed nervously. “Looked a bit more like something was about to in the middle _of you_ but uh-“

            “Stilinski!” Jackson snapped. “Get to the point or get out.”

            “Right-yeah…just seriously why would you not lock the door or something-“

            “Why didn’t _you_ knock?”

            “Relax Jackson.” Ethan said easily. He turned back to Stiles with a bemused grin. “Did you actually need something?”

            “I just-well” Stiles ran a hand though his hair awkwardly and just dove right in. “I had a question for Jackson about his biological parents…”

            Jackson’s expression darkened. “No.”

            “C’mon Jackson-“

            “Go away Stilinski.” He snapped.

            Ethan stood up from the bed and walked over to the door. He gave Jackson a knowing look before turning back to Stiles. “Just uh-just give us a minute okay?”

            “Yeah sure…” The door clicked back into place right before Stiles’ eye, the perfect metaphor for yet another avenue of information closing itself off from him. Stiles sighed and took a few steps down the hallway and away from Jackson’s room. He could hear Ethan and Jackson talking in low voices inside and whatever was going on he figured he should probably give them a little privacy.

            Stiles paced the opposite end of the hallway aimlessly looking at some of the family pictures the Whittemores had displayed all over the walls. _Maybe I should just head back downstairs…_ Jackson pretty clearly had no interest in talking. And if Ethan brought him around somehow or they wanted to find Stiles again it’d be easy enough…

            He was pulled from his thoughts by his phone suddenly ringing.

            Stiles grabbed it out of his pocket half expecting to see his dad’s number flashing across the screen, calling to check up on him. Instead it was a number Stiles didn’t recognize. He almost let it go to voicemail, but the area code was clearly from Beacon Hills and in the end his curiosity won out as it so often did.

            “Hello?”

            “Stiles?”

            The voice was familiar but took him a minute to place it… “Isaac?”

            “Yeah.” Isaac sounded suddenly relived. “S-sorry for calling you so late. It’s just h-he’s pretty upset. And I didn’t want to get the police involved with everything that just happened…”

            If Stiles had been confused before now he was even more so. “What are you talking about Isaac?”

            “Derek…”

            “Derek?” Stiles frowned. Why in the world would Isaac be calling him about Derek?

            “H-he’s still here…” Isaac said stammering a little. “…and well you were the only number I found saved in his phone…

            _Right…_ Stiles remembered now. Derek had broken his old phone. He’d texted Stiles his address from the new one when he got it but he must not have added in any other contacts yet. Still Stiles really wasn’t sure he was the right person to call for this-whatever this was. But Isaac sounded worried… “Where are you at?”

            “The cemetery.”

            “All right…” Stiles spared one last furtive glance at the light coming from under Jackson’s door and sighed. “I’ll be right there…”

***

            Beacon Hills Cemetery looked strange at night. Stiles had come here plenty of times over the years to visit his mother’s plot, but seeing the graves bathed in the light from the full moon gave the place a quieter peace than it had during the day. He supposed some might find it unnerving, but maybe because of his mother Stiles had grown to appreciate cemeteries in his own way. In the months right after his mom had died Stiles and his dad come out to visit her grave almost everyday. They would just sit and talk, sometimes they’d bring packed food and make it a picnic. Stiles still tried to come visit her grave regularly.

            He spotted Parrish’s squad car lingering by the cemetery’s entrance, as well as Derek’s Camero parked just a little farther in. Parrish was in his car Stiles noted, so whatever Isaac had called him about couldn’t have been that bad…still Stiles couldn’t miss the way Parrish seemed to almost pointedly ignore him as he drove in.

            Stiles found Isaac easily enough, he was standing just a little ways off from one of the few mausoleums in the cemetery. The doors were open, and when Stiles saw the name above the entrance he knew why. _Hale_. The letters were circled by a sort of family crest, a sigil of a wolf carved into the stone. Isaac’s relief on seeing Stiles was immediately clear.

            “Thanks for coming…”

            “Yeah.” Stiles nodded at the tomb still unsure exactly why Isaac had called him. “Derek’s in there?”

            Isaac nodded, and in the limited light from the moon Stiles caught the beginnings of bad bruise on the side of Isaac’s face.

            “He didn’t hurt you did he?” Stiles asked baffled.

            “What?” Isaac’s eyes widened just fraction.

            “Derek-“ Stiles motioned to Isaac’s face. “Did he-“

            “Oh-“ Isaac seemed to breath a sigh of relief. “No.” He smiled awkwardly. “That’s just from lacrosse…”

            Stiles frowned. He couldn’t remember Isaac taking a hit in practice any of the last few days that would cause a bruise like that-but then again Stiles didn’t always pay the best attention then. One of the many reasons he was still happily riding the bench with Scott. “So what’s going on then?”

            “I need to close up but he’s still inside…” Isaac said meekly. “I tried to tell him but he’s not really listening…”

            Stiles sighed. _That_ certainly sounded more like Derek. In his limited interactions with him, Stiles had seen him be incredibly stubborn when he wanted to. Apparently Isaac was just hoping Stiles would have better luck with him-something Stiles was less than convinced of. Still he supposed he owed it to Isaac to try…

            He climbed down into the mausoleum, mindful of his surroundings. The inside was the same white marble as the front had been, but the alcoves were labeled where the Hale ancestors had been interred with small black marble name plaques. Stiles could see one of the small lights on and flickering up from farther back in the crypt. He followed it in. A thin spark of anger kicked up in Stiles for Derek’s behavior earlier and making Isaac wait like this, not to mention dragging Stiles himself here in the middle of the night, intentional or not.

            “Hey Sour Wolf-“

            The rest of his words seemed to vanish, drying up at the sight of the state Derek was in. Derek was still in his suit from the funeral, though he’d unbuttoned his jacket and the top of his shirt. His tie hung loose around his neck, and his shirt was coming untucked in front. Derek didn’t seem to care. He was slumped back against a wall of the tomb, staring up at the new plaques for his family. He had a half empty bottle of beer in his hand and several empty ones rolling around next to him. From the look of his face Stiles was fairly certain he’d been crying.

            “…What are you doing here?” Derek asked bitterly.

            “Man…” Stiles watched Derek take another swig of beer, slopping some down his shirt in the process. Stiles briefly wondered if Derek had even had to use a fake ID to get the alcohol or if someone had just willingly sold it to him even knowing who he was. Stiles supposed this explained Parrish’s behavior at the gate, and Isaac wanting to call Stiles over the cops too. Busting a guy for underage drinking when he was mourning his entire family just felt wrong even if was following the letter of the law.

            “…Are you okay?” Stiles asked.

            “What do you think?” Derek huffed.

            Stiles sighed and slid down the wall to sit next to Derek. He had to move a beer bottle to avoid sitting on it. Stiles grimaced. “I think for starters you’ve had enough of that.” He said nodding to the one in Derek’s hand.

            Derek glared at Stiles and took another sip, seemingly just to spite him. Stiles had to try another tactic.

            “That couldn’t have been easy…being up there in front of everyone…”

            “No one else seemed to notice…” Derek laughed hollowly.

            “Look I’m trying to be nice here alright?” Stiles said. “I know what it’s like to lose someone…

            “Mm.” Derek just grunted. Stiles sat there with him in silence for a bit not sure what to say.

            “Why Sour Wolf?”

            Stiles gave Derek a confused look. “What?”

            “Before…you said-“

            “Oh…” Stiles fiddled with one of the empty bottles guiltily. “Sorry. Just trying to be funny I guess…I saw that crest thing outside and just went with it…”

            Derek shifted a bit so he was facing more towards Stiles but didn’t say anything.

            “My dad had nothing to do with the Miller case you know?” Stiles declared suddenly, a piece of his earlier anger coming back. “So whatever you’re thinking-“

            Derek nodded once stiffly. “I know…”

            “What?”

            “I…looked it up after you left.“

            “Okay…” Stiles still felt like he was floundering around in the dark. “That’s good then I guess…” He flashed back to Isaac waiting outside to lock up. “Look Derek…you’ve got to leave now…the cemetery’s supposed to close at dusk…”

            “I don’t want to leave them…”

            Stiles heart broke a little at that admission. Somewhere inside him his nine-year-old self knew exactly how Derek felt. “I know…but they’ll still be here…”

            Derek sighed and shifted a little woozily. “…Why’d you come?”

            “Isaac called me.” Stiles laughed. “Apparently I’m the only number you added to your new phone…”

            Derek wasn’t laughing. He was just staring at Stiles with an unreadable expression. “Who else would I add?”

            “Uh…” Stiles paused taken aback. “Cora? Your friends…”

            “Cora’s still mad at me.” Derek smiled sadly. “And what friends huh? Have you seen anyone else around the last few days?”

            “Your school’s on break…” Stiles said uncertainly. “They’re probably just at home…” But even as he said it Stiles sensed the lie in that. When Stiles had lost his mom Scott had dropped anything and everything to be there for him. The McCalls had helped Stiles and his dad through one of the worst times of their lives. Looking back Stiles couldn’t honestly imagine getting through those first few months when everything felt at its darkest without them… Stiles looked back to Derek sadly. He was right, if he had friends like that they would have been here.

            “Laura was always the social one…” Derek smiled sadly. “But I was a Hale and that brought with it a certain cachet…”

            Stiles thought back to all the basketball games he’d watched Derek in over the years ago. He could see it now in a way. Everyone liked Derek or admired his family, they might talk to him, or try to get an in for the social circles the Hales were always a part of but that wasn’t the same thing as friendship. Derek had been something of a loner even as part of a team… Stiles thought back to the stone wolf he’d seen carved outside. They were social creatures just like people. The last real wolf in California had been taken out years ago, but Beacon Hills had it’s own last wolf now sitting right next to him…

            “I was a Hale…part of a set…or a symbol…and now they're just all gone…no one ever got to know the real me…” Derek’s tone turned suddenly bitter. “Not even Kate…I’m not even sure I know who I am without them…

            “You’ll figure it out…” Stiles looked up at the fresh plaques in front of them. “I know it hurts now…everything can just seem so…overwhelming…but it does get better…”

            “I thought I _was_ doing better…” Derek said quietly. “But then seeing Kate today too…”

            “How are you doing with that?” Stiles grimaced. “She had a lot of nerve coming today…”

            Derek snorted bitterly. “I’m sure she didn’t see anything wrong with it…

            “Yeah well who cares what she thinks.” Stiles said. “It clearly bothered _you_. I don’t know why no one said anything…”

            “You’d be surprised what people don’t notice…”

            “I guess…” Stiles sighed. He’d heard enough similar things from his dad to know it was true. “But still…”

            “You were the only person who even asked me about it…” Derek set the bottle he’d been holding down. “You saw it…you’re maybe the first person that’s really seen _me_ in years…”

            “Derek-“

            “I’ve seen the way you look at me you know…when you think I’m not paying attention…”

            Stiles flushed. “Look I-“

            Derek leaned forward a little, glassy eyed, and for a moment Stiles had the horrible thought that Derek was about to throw up on him. He doubted he’d ever recover from the mortification of that too-

            And then Derek _kissed_ him.


	6. Chapter 6

            For a moment Stiles was swept away by the fantasy of it all-Derek Hale his first ever crush, and now his first kiss. He found himself closing his eyes and kissing back, his blood pounding in his ears. The sheer shock of something he’d secretly dreamed about for so long finally happening was overwhelming, and he responded on instinct diving in headfirst. But bit-by-bit the fantasy fell apart. Stiles was in a mostly dark, dank tomb. Derek was drunk. He reeked of the cheap beer he’d bought this close up. Derek was kissing him while drunk-Derek who had just lost so many members of his family. Derek, who up to this point had expressed absolutely no interest in Stiles. Derek, who Stiles wasn’t even sure liked him-

            “Uff-!” Stiles pulled back suddenly, the kiss turning bitter in his mouth. He slammed his head back against the hard marble of the mausoleum _. This was wrong._ Regret was crashing over Stiles in waves. _A first kiss isn’t supposed to feel like this…_

            Derek leaned forward as if to kiss him again and Stiles jumped to his feet desperate to increase the distance between them. “Derek-no. Just-stop…”

            “What?” Derek slurred a little. “You don’t like me now either?”

            “You’re drunk.”

            “Heh…” Derek stumbled up to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall. “So?”

            “So?” Stiles felt anger boiling up in him now, though whether it was for the situation, for Derek, or even for himself he couldn’t say. “So you don’t just start kissing people because you’re drunk and lonely!” He shouted. “Especially if you know-“

            “If I know what?”

            Stiles threw up his hands in frustration. “That I like you Derek! Or I did at least-“ Stiles fumed. “I don’t know how I feel right now. Why would you think-“

            “Look…” Derek opened his mouth to respond, and took a half step towards Stiles. He swayed precariously and then everything was fading to black.

            “Whoa-“ Stiles jumped forward catching him by the shoulder before he could fall. Stiles tried to help him back up but Derek was out cold, his heavily muscled frame weighing heavily on Stiles’ back.

            “Damn it…” Stiles groaned in frustration and might have kicked the wall if he didn’t think doing so would be disrespectful, and potentially liable to tip him over with Derek balanced so unevenly on his shoulders. “Just great…” Stiles sighed and tried his best to shift Derek to a more secure position as he started the long, slow walk back to his jeep.

***

            Aiden took one final spin around the living room. There were still empty cups laying around in spots, and a couple streamers and other pieces of junk left over from the party. But there was no way he was cleaning all this up alone. He grinned and bounded up the stairs. He pounded out a quick beat on Jackson’s door before just going ahead and opening it anyways. It wasn’t like they had anything he hadn’t seen before. “Hope you two are both decent-“ Aiden laughed. “…but since that’s not very likely I’ll settle for fully dressed.”

            The door swung open to reveal Jackson and Ethan both fully dressed and just sitting on the bed together. Ethan had an arm wrapped around Jackson’s back and was rubbing his shoulders. Jackson looked pretty down, and Ethan wasn’t much better. “Really? No making fun of my bad joke? Huh…”

            Aiden stepped forward and flopped down onto the bed next to Jackson, rolling over from his back to his side to get a better view. “Seriously you two both look practically depressed. I know Ethan can’t be _that_ bad in bed- he is a poor man’s copy of this after all-“

            Ethan smacked Aiden playfully as he pulled up his shirt, then flicked him off with the hand not wrapped around Jackson. “I’m older. That makes you a copy of _me_.”

            “In your dreams.” Aiden grinned. “But seriously though what’s up? Everybody’s finally headed out downstairs so we should probably get started on clean up.

            “Stiles brought up Jackson’s parents.”

            Aiden frowned. “Okay?”

            “My biological parents.”

            “Ah.” Aiden knew Jackson was still pretty sensitive about the whole adoption thing. “…you know you can always talk to us about it right?”

            Ethan met Aiden’s gaze and smiled. “That’s what I said.”

            Jackson sighed. “It’s nice of you guys to say really-but you just don’t get it…”

            Aiden’s expression darkened. “Right because the two guys living with a legal guardian instead of their parents wouldn’t know anything about issues like that.”

            Jackson winced. He knew what Aiden was taking about. “Sorry I didn’t mean…“

            “It’s fine.” Aiden said seriously. “I know you didn’t…”

            “But we can relate.” Ethan added. “and even if we couldn’t we’d still listen…”

            “I know…” Jackson mumbled.

            “So what-“

            A sudden shout from outside cut him off.

            Aiden frowned. “What’s that?”

            Jackson grimaced and stepped up to his window.

            The voice came again. “Where have you been?! Huh?”

            “Did somebody get a little too wasted at the party?” Aiden rolled off the bed to go look out the window too.

            Jackson sighed. “Not exactly…”

            Aiden’s face turned to stone the moment he peaked behind the curtain. Ethan knew that look. His stomach dropped. “Aiden-“

            Aiden was already pulling back from the window and thundering down the stairs. Ethan jumped off the bed and took off after him, Jackson right behind Ethan.

            “You should have called me boy-“

            The shouting got louder as they ran outside, and as they got closer they could finally start to make out the other half of the conversation.

            “I-I did…”

            “And we’re not running a charity!” Mr. Lahey yelled. “If it’s time to close up you close up! Make him leave!”

            Isaac was standing meekly on his front lawn, pressed back to the door of his car as his father towered over him screaming at him. There was an open beer bottle in Mr. Lahey’s hand and from the way he was swaying when he walked it wasn’t his first.

            “I couldn’t-“

            “What did you say to me?!” Mr. Lahey grabbed Isaac by the collar of his shirt and slammed him back into the car he was cowering against. His hand slapped across Isaac’s face stinging the skin red. “Don’t you back talk me-“

            Aiden was positively seething, standing at the very edge of Jackson’s yard. Ethan had him by the shoulder and was whispering something Jackson couldn’t make out into his ear.

            “Isaac!” Aiden called out almost casually. “Hey Isaac-“

            Isaac and Mr. Lahey both snapped around to look at Aiden baffled, unaware they’d gathered a small audience.

            Aiden forced a smiled onto his face. “We missed you at the party. We still have some food and stuff if you want to come over…”

            “W-what?” Isaac asked.

            “Yeah it’s fine. C’mon-“

            “Mind your own business son.” Mr. Lahey snapped.

            “I’m not your son.” Aiden growled. “-and if Isaac wants to come over he can. Right Jackson?”

            “Uh yeah…” Jackson took a step closer to Aiden and Ethan who gave him a worried look. Jackson didn’t know where Aiden was going with this. “Yeah that’s fine…”

            Aiden looked down the street briefly, then took a step into the road his hand out. “C’mon Isaac.”

            Ethan moved to pull him back. “Aiden-“

            “LISTEN BOY- “Mr. Lahey slammed Isaac back into the car again, this time hard enough to break the glass of the window, sending countless tiny shards raining down onto poor Isaac. Isaac let out a soft cry and threw up his hand to protect his face. “I TOLD YOU TO MIND-“

            Aiden was off like a shot, charging across the street for Mr. Lahey.

            “AIDEN DON’T-“

            Aiden didn’t hear his brother-or maybe couldn’t over the blood rushing in his ears. He tackled Mr. Lahey, pulling him off of Isaac and punched him twice in the face before being thrown off.

            Ethan raced across after Aiden, leaving Jackson to follow and check on Isaac. Mr. Lahey stood up and slashed out with the beer bottle in his hand, breaking it on Aiden’s chin. Aiden stumbled and Mr. Lahey lashed out with the broken bottle again swinging the ragged edged like a knife. His second attack just barely missed Aiden, and Ethan was there before he could try again, shoving Mr. Lahey down to the ground and knocking the bottle from his hand, a darkness Jackson had never seen before in his eyes. Ethan placed a knee squarely in Mr. Lahey’s back, grabbing both his hands as well and effectively pinning the older man to the ground.

            “Aiden?” Ethan asked urgently.

            “I’m okay.” Aiden was bleeding from several small cuts on his chin. “Might just need some stitches again…”

            Isaac groaned from where he’d slumped to the ground.

            “How about him?” Aiden asked.

            “I don’t know.” Jackson had his phone to his ear already dialing 9-1-1 grimly. “Yes- I need an ambulance and a sheriff’s car…”

***

            Derek came back to himself slowly. He could hear voices drifting in from somewhere near by.

            “-I told you we couldn’t. The note-“

            “But you really think the fire wasn’t an accident?”

            That got more of Derek’s attention. He tried to sit up and groaned as his head throbbed with the slightest movement. Early morning sunlight was starting to leak in through the blinds-Derek blinked around-wherever he was he didn’t recognize it. He did recognize one of the voices as Stiles’ now, which kept him a little bit calmer, but he couldn’t place the other voice. Derek groaned. _What had happened last night? He had the funerals, and then he’d gone to the cemetery…_

            “-of course it wasn’t an accident nobody would send a message like that if it was!”

            “Okay…just-it’s a lot to take in…”

            Derek took a look around the room he was in curiously. It looked like a typical teenage boy’s room in most respects, but Derek knew it couldn’t be Stiles’ -he’d have recognized it having seen it before when he was briefly staying with the Stilinskis. His head was still throbbing and his stomach lurched when he tried to sit up. Derek grimaced. He knew what a bad hangover felt like.

            “So how are Jackson’s parents involved?”

            “His biological parents…and I don’t know.” Stiles sighed. “I tried to talk to him about it last night but it didn’t go anywhere…”

            Heaving himself off the bed Derek stumbled a little towards the bedroom door. He was still wearing the remnants of his suit, though someone had taken the time to remove his shoes and his jacket. They along with his tie, were draped over a chair in the corner. He fumbled with the door and stepped out into a hallway. Derek could hear the voices louder now drifting up from the bottom of the stairs.

            “What did Jackson’s parents do anyways?”

            “The Millers? I don’t know…”

            “They were reporters…” Derek groaned. He started down the stairs slowly and saw Stiles and another guy he thought he recognized from the funeral standing in the kitchen. Both of them snapped around to look at him when he spoke, Stiles’ face a strange mix of emotions Derek couldn’t quite piece together.

            “How do you know that?” Stiles finally asked him.

            “My mother’s files.” Derek eased himself down into one of the chairs at the kitchen table and nodded his thanks when the guy he didn’t know placed a mug of coffee in front of him. “Thanks…”

            “What else did the files say?” Stiles pressed.

            “Uggg…” Derek took a slow sip of the coffee his head pounding. “Whatever reason she had for looking into the Millers’ case was somehow tied to their articles…but I don’t know which ones.”

            Stiles sighed. “Well that’s frustratingly vague…”

            Derek frowned and nodded toward the one who’d brought him coffee. “You told him?”

            “Scott.” The boy waved.

            “I kind of had to.” Stiles said in challenging tone. “I couldn’t exactly bring you to his house and not explain anything…”

            Derek frowned. Last night was still pretty hazy after he got to the cemetery. “Why-“

            “Because my dad was home last night and I didn’t think bringing you there while you were passed out drunk was a good idea.” Stiles snapped.

            “My mom was working the late shift anyways so it worked out.” Scott added with a shrug.

            “Sorry…” Derek winced. “My memory of last night is a bit patchy…”

            Stiles gave Derek a conflicted look. “Maybe that’s for the best…”

            An image of Stiles with him in that same dim light of the tomb swam into Derek’s mind. _Did he mean…_ Derek grimaced. “I guess…”

            Scott looked between the two of them curiously. He raised an eyebrow at Stiles but Stiles didn’t say anything. Derek thought he looked almost disappointed.

            “So-uh…how do we figure out which articles Derek’s mom was looking at?”

            Stiles sighed. “We could try going to the local paper’s records and see what Mr. Miller was writing about before he died, but the paper was bought out a few years ago I don’t know how much old stuff they would have kept.”

            “Couldn’t you try talking to this Jackson guy again?” Derek asked. “You’ll see him at school right?”

            “Not today.” Scott smiled and reached down to grab his phone as it chimed. “Teacher in-service day.”

            “…Besides I didn’t really leave things on the best terms with him.” Stiles sighed.

            “Well do you have a better idea?” Derek offered.

            “Fine…” Stiles sighed again. “But I don’t even know where Jackson is and I somehow doubt he’s going to take my calls…”

            “I think I do.”

            Derek and Stiles both turned to Scott puzzled. Scott looked up from his phone, and turned the screen to show he was reading a text message. “From my mom… it sounds like Jackson’s at the hospital.

            “What?” Stiles shook his head. “Why would Jackson be at the hospital?”

            “I don’t know-but he can’t be a patient or my mom wouldn’t have said anything…”

            “What’d she say anyways?” Stiles asked.

            Scott grinned. “That she understands why you find him so annoying.”

            Stiles snorted. “Well then…I guess we’re heading to the hospital…”

***

            Jackson sighed dramatically. “How much longer are we going to have to be here?” He called out loudly into the hall. The hospital staff was mostly ignoring him at this point. His dad was down the hall talking things over with the Sheriff, otherwise Jackson felt sure he at least could have gotten a straight answer. Jackson, Ethan and Aiden had all been in the hospital overnight, first so a deputy sheriff could take their statements and so Aiden could be stitched up, and then on the pretense of keeping Aiden for observation on a possible concussion. Given Aiden had never really hit his head, Jackson thought that was pretty bogus-and Jackson had seen enough concussions playing lacrosse over the years to feel pretty confident in that judgment.

            But the excuses had been enough to keep Aiden in the hospital, which given the situation Jackson suspected was the real goal all along. He and Ethan were technically free to go, but they had been _strongly encouraged_ to wait around in case the Sheriff or anyone had any other questions. Lahey was in a room somewhere down the hall, Jackson had seen him briefly when he was admitted, though Jackson hadn’t seen any sign of Mr. Lahey anywhere.

            Aiden laughed as he watched Jackson stalk back forth across the room. “Hey relax. At least you still have full use of your hands…” He rattled his right wrist where one of the deputies had handcuffed Aiden to his hospital bed. “Still seems a bit excessive if you ask me.”

            “You assaulted a man.” Ethan huffed from the chair next to him. “-Not that he didn’t deserve it.” He added hastily seeing Aiden’s expression. “But even with you defending Isaac, until they sort everything out and actually charge Isaac’s dad, you can’t claim any mitigating circumstances in the assault…hence the handcuffs.”

            Aiden snorted. “Nerd.”

            Jackson walked back to the room’s window into the hall and peaked through the blinds, trying to get a decent view of where his father, the Sheriff, and Deucalion were all huddled up.

            Aiden frowned, considering. “What do you think Lahey’s dad’s going to get-“

            “Shh!” Jackson hushed him, shrugging off Aiden’s annoyed look. “Relax-I’m trying to hear what they’re talking about…” He nodded out the window.

            Ethan smiled and walked over to join Jackson by the window curiously. “Two lawyers whose kids are potentially in trouble? I kind of feel bad for the Sheriff…”

            Bits and pieces of the conversation filtered down the hall to their room, fading in and out with the other noises of the hospital.

            “…and I know that sir but Aiden did attack him first-“

            “After he saw what the man was doing to his son and Aiden’s friend.” Deucalion said coldly. “I assume the Lahey boy is pressing charges against his father yes?”  
            “We’re talking to him.” The Sheriff sighed. “He’s still pretty shaken up…

            “I’m sure.” Jackson’s father nodded easily. “But that doesn’t change the facts. Even if Isaac doesn’t want to press the case himself you have three witnesses-“

            “All of whom have potential conflicts of interests.” The Sheriff answered as patiently as he could. “Given the twins’ history and their own experiences they’re not the most impartial witnesses. And since one is a close friend of Jackson’s and the other is his boyfriend…”

            Jackson grimaced and shot a guilty look towards Ethan. Ethan just shrugged and squeezed Jackson’s shoulder reassuringly.

            “It’s not like you didn’t know…”

            “Yeah but still…”

            Aiden grinned. “Besides-if we didn’t have to deal with all that crap we’d never have wound up in Beacon Hills. And how sad would your life have been if we’d never come along?”

            Jackson just shook his head but couldn’t help smiling.

            Back in the hallway they heard Mr. Whittemore sigh. “All the same…”

            “I know.” The Sheriff rubbed the back of his neck and said something Jackson couldn’t quite make out before becoming clearer again… “Believe me I want to see the man in jail as much as you two…”

            Jackson’s father nodded sadly. “That poor boy...”

            Jackson had a wave of guilt battering up against his stomach thinking about it. He’d known Isaac’s dad could be rough with him sometimes but he’d never actually seen it. And anytime Jackson would bring it up Isaac would always shut the conversation down hard, making it clear he didn’t want anyone else involved. Jackson wondered if maybe he should have tried to have Ethan or Aiden talk to him before it came to this…maybe one of them could have gotten Lahey to stop being an idiot when it came to his dad.

            “We should get some food when they finally let us out of here.” Aiden said. “I’m starving…”

            Ethan frowned. “We had breakfast like two hours ago…”

            Aiden rolled his eyes. “Yeah but it was _hospital food_. I’m not going to eat any more of that than I have to.”

            “You’re ridiculous…”

            Jackson tuned out the affectionate sibling bickering as he caught sight of three new faces coming off the elevator-Stilinski, McCall, and Derek Hale of all people. Jackson watched curiously as McCall went up to speak with one of the nurses who he had something of a vague resemblance to. The nurse nodded towards their room, and Jackson caught McCall’s eye as he turned towards them. “Huh…”

            “What?” Ethan asked.

            “Seems we’re getting a visit from the three stooges.”

            Even though the door to the room was half open McCall still stopped to knock on it before coming inside. Jackson groaned and waved the idiots inside. “What do you idiots want now?”

            “Uh-“ Not surprisingly Stilinski was the one to open his mouth first, but he broke off when he caught sight of the handcuffs on Aiden’s wrist. “What are those for?”

            Aiden smirked. “Jackson’s just into really kinky sex and mistook me for Ethan. We’re looking for the key now…”

            Jackson shook his head. “Shut up.”

            Aiden winked. “You seem to forget my room is _right_ next to Ethan’s…”

            Jackson flipped him off laughing, earning laughs from both Ethan and Aiden. Stilinski and the others still seemed taken aback. Jackson sighed. “Seriously Stilinski-why are you all here?”

            “Well-uh…you never answered my question last night…”

            Jackson glared at him. “You mean the one where you interrupted me to ask about my biological parents and then disappeared? _That_ question?”

            Stilinski at least had the wherewithal to look guilty.

            “Something else important came up…” Jackson saw Stilinski’s eyes flick over to Derek, who almost deliberately didn’t look at him. Jackson raised his eyebrows knowingly. That look had all _kinds_ of drama wrapped up in it… He had to make an effort not to laugh.

            “Why do you want to know about them anyways?” Jackson asked.

            “It’s important.”

            “Yeah so you said.” Jackson huffed. “But why? C’mon Stilinski…what’s so important about my birth parents?”

            “Uh well-“ Stilinski trailed off, seemingly floundering around for an explanation Jackson didn’t think he actually had. Jackson was quickly losing interest when Derek Hale finally spoke up.

            “We think your parents' deaths could be connected to the fire that killed my family.”

            It took a second for Jackson to process that. _It doesn’t get much blunter…_ Jackson studied them all for a second waiting for the bad punch line to some joke, or for one of them to crack and admit the real reason they’d come…but they all looked deadly seriously. Jackson said the only thing that came to mind. “My parents died in a car crash…”

            “Why would you think it was anything more than an accident?” Ethan asked.

            “Before the fire Derek’s mom was looking back at the Millers case…” Stiles said.

            “From what I can make out from her files it seems like she thought something more was involved.” Derek added shortly.

            Everyone fell quiet for a minute as that sunk in, eyes unconsciously shifting to Jackson.

            “So what is it you want from me then?” Jackson finally asked. “It’s not like I would have any way of being able to know one way or the other…”

            “Well you might not but there could be something in Gordon Miller’s work that would give us a clue to what happened…” Stiles explained. “From what Derek found, it looks like his mom was investigating some of your bio dad’s old newspaper articles-we just need to find some of those articles so we can see what they were about.”

            Jackson considered Stiles for a moment. Everything he was saying seemed to strain the limits of credulity, but part of Jackson still wanted to believe him-was almost desperate to really. The idea that something else besides cruel fate or chance might have been involved in what happened-even something as dark as the conspiracy Stiles seemed to be suggesting-the idea appealed to Jackson far too much for him to be entirely comfortable with it. It was almost enough for Jackson to turn Stilinski down out of spite, though whether it was directed at him or Jackson’s own naive hopes he couldn’t have said. Instead his hand drifted down to his pocket. Jackson pulled out his key ring, flipping past the one for his Porsche, and his house, reaching for the small silver key at the back. He ran his thumb along the grooves, slowly working the pattern into his skin, finally he looked up to Stilinski again. “You’re going to need to get your dad to let Aiden out of those cuffs…”

***

            “-and here why don’t you try some of these on too dear.” Mrs. Argent smiled and handed Lydia another small stack of clothes.

            Lydia beamed warmly, and turned to head back to the dressing rooms. “Your mother is amazing.”

            Allison laughed. “You say that every time.”

            “Because it’s always true.” Lydia laughed and slipped inside one of the booths to change. “I think I’m going to try the purple first…”

            “Sure.” Allison’s phone chimed and she looked down to check it absent-mindedly. She frowned as she read the notification. “What did Aiden need to get stitches for?

            “What?” Lydia pulled back the curtain, for the moment her stack of potential new outfits forgotten.

            Allison held up her phone. “Aiden just posted saying he had stitches and Ethan and Jackson like it…”

            “Let me see that…” Lydia sighed.

            “I take it you didn’t know?”

            “Of course not.” Lydia rolled her eyes clearly exasperated. “Who knows what those three have gotten up to now…they never tell me until after one of them injures themselves. Probably because they know I’ll tell them not to do whatever stupid thing they have planned…”

            Allison tried not to smile. “If they just posted about it they might still be at the hospital…

            “Mmm…” Lydia’s eyes glinted mischievously. “I like the way you think.”

***

            “So where exactly are we going?” Stiles took a few jogging steps to try and catch up to Jackson as they headed down the hospital’s steps and back towards the parking lot.

            “To get you those articles.” Jackson grumbled. “Look just follow me okay?”

            Stiles threw his hands up carelessly. “Fine, fine, whatever…”

            “Heh…” Aiden was rubbing his wrist where the handcuffs had been, the skin there slightly red. “I should really give the hospital a review based on my stay…terrible food bad atmosphere, handcuffs sucked…” he laughed. “Still at least a few of the nurse were hot.”

            “Dude-“ Scott cringed. “Your nurse was _my mom_.”

            “Really?” Aiden grinned. “Huh…well Mama McCall has some game…”

            “Ugg-“ Scott moved to cover his ears. “Just stop…”

            Aiden just laughed harder. “I don’t know I’m kind of having fun…”

            Jackson snorted. “I’ll tell Lydia you said that.”

            “On second thought I’m fine letting it go.”

            Jackson, Ethan and Aiden all climbed into his car, with Stiles, Derek and Scott piling into Stiles’ jeep.

            Allison and Lydia pulled into the parking lot just in time to see them loading up.

            “That’s them there…” Allison pointed. “What are they doing with Scott and Stiles?” She squinted a little. “And is that Derek?”

            Before either of the girls could get a better view Jackson’s Porsche and Stiles' Jeep pulled away. Lydia made a quick u-turn and came around to follow them.

            “Only one way to find out…”

            They followed the boys for a fair ways, always trying to stay a car or two back so as not to be noticed. They were heading into a part of town Allison didn’t know as well when Jackson turned into a driveway. The house was back a bit from the road and looked to back up against the Beacon Hills’ preserve, but most surprising for Allison was that it wasn’t Jackson’s house. And yet as Jackson and the others climbed out he unlocked the front gate on the driveway and started to walk up to the house.

            Lydia slid her car into a spot on the street where they had a clear view of the house’s front door and switched off her car.

            “Where are we?” Allison asked.

            On the other side of the gate, Stiles was asking almost the same question.

            “How do you have a key to this place?”

            “I own it.” Rather than take them through the front door Jackson led them around to the house’s back yard. Stiles could see paint cans mounted up against a few of the trees, and an older lacrosse ball was lying in the grass.

            “You come here to practice?”

            Jackson followed his gaze. “Sometimes.” Jackson went up to the back door and unlocked it, pulling the door open for them. Where the outside of the house had maintained a warm almost welcoming look, complete with a freshly cut lawn, the inside reminded Stiles of nothing as much as when he’d been inside the Hale mausoleum. Almost everything was covered in white sheets, he supposed to prevent dust, but in the dim light it cast the house in a somewhat eerie mood. There was an almost unnatural stillness to the place too, it wasn’t lived in so much as it was in stasis.

            “This is the Miller house?” Stiles asked, feeling he already knew the answer. Jackson nodded.

            Scott and Derek seemed to share some of Stiles’ discomfort, but judging from their knowledge of which lights still worked as they helped Jackson clear a bit of a path, this wasn’t the first time Ethan or Aiden had been here.

            “The office is through here…” Jackson pointed to a room with several large filing cabinets and an old desktop computer on a heavy wooden table. Jackson moved around behind the desk to pull open the blinds for the window letting in a little more light.

            Stiles did a quick scan of the filing cabinets. They looked to all be pretty well labeled, which given Gordon Miller’s job requirements made a fair amount of sense.

            “Any idea what we’re looking for?” Ethan asked.

            “Well…” Stiles found the drawer marked most recent and pulled it open. “I figure it makes the most sense to start with the things he was working on just before the crash…” There were a dozen or more large file folders in the drawer crammed with papers, clippings and notes. Stiles grabbed them and started to divvy them up. “Here…”

            Stiles took one of the stacks for himself as well and started reading. He really wasn’t sure what they were looking for, but he hoped he’d know it when he saw it. And within just a few minutes of reading Stiles was convinced Talia Hale was on to something…

            “This one’s all about the yakuza.” Stiles said. “Japanese mafia” he added for Scott’s benefit when he saw his friend’s confused look.

            Ethan held up one of the folders he and Aiden had grabbed. “These are a series of notes about a Mexican crime family…the uh-“ He looked back down to consult the folder. “The Calaveras…”

            “This folder looks like it has a series of articles he wrote about possible corruption in the old sheriff’s department…” Scott said shooting Stiles a slightly guilty look. Stiles waved him off. Whatever had been happening back then wasn’t his dad’s department.

            “Derek?” Stiles asked.

            “Looks like a bunch of financial records.” Derek grumbled. “Linking back to Beacon Hills…”

            “So what?” Jackson asked. “They’re just a bunch of random articles?”

            “But all of them connect back to organized crime or Beacon Hills somehow…” Stiles trailed off and reached back into the filling cabinet reaching for the folder farthest in back. He pulled it out and quickly skimmed the top sheet, confirming his suspicions.

            “What?” Jackson glared at him impatiently. “What is it Stilinski?”

            Stiles passed the folder to Jackson. “It looks like Gordon Miller was investigating the possibility of some kind of organized crime ring in Beacon Hills in the weeks before the crash… only I’d say they found him first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is more set up, but it's to lead into things finally starting to really come together in the next two chapters. 
> 
> For the Miller's backyard I was thinking of the scene in season one where during the parent teacher conferences Jackson is practicing by shooting at paint cans mounted on some trees, and we first find out he's adopted. The paint cans on tree thing just never struck me as something the Whittemores would do, so i always kind of imagined Jackson set it up at is biological parents house to kind of torture himself a little more with having to be the best to prove he was worth being adopted/make his dead parents proud.


	7. Chapter 7

            “Why though-“ Jackson jerked his head back towards Derek. “And if his mom was looking into all this-“

            “Gordon Miller must have been on to something they didn’t want to come out-“

            Stiles broke off suddenly as the door the Miller house creaked on its hinges, someone else opening it and coming inside. He threw his finger up to his lips trying to tell the others to be quiet. After the attack from Barrow anything was possible. Stiles looked around the room quickly. The window behind the deck looked to only open part of the way but maybe if-

            “We know you guys are in here.” Lydia called. “You may as well come out.”

            Stiles let loose a heavy breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Lydia-we’re uh…we’re in here…”

            Lydia appeared in the doorway of the office a moment later picking her way around the covered furniture, Allison following along behind her.

            “What are you doing here?” Aiden asked.

            “Funny I was going to ask you the same question…” Lydia lifted a hand to Aiden’s face trailing a finger along his chin near his new stitches. “I saw you post about these…were you going to tell me?”

            Aiden grinned. “Don’t worry they didn’t affect my handsome mug.” Ethan rolled his eyes behind Aiden.

            Allison circled around to reach Scott. “What’s going on Scott?”

            Scott sighed. “That’s uh…it’s a bit complicated…”

            “So uncomplicate it.” Lydia said. “You clearly know something we don’t, and whatever it is I can’t help but think it’s connected to all this…” Her hand waved across Aiden’s stitches, Jackson and Ethan, and even Derek where he was standing back a bit further in the corner. Stiles caught his eyes in a silent question.

            “Fine.” Derek grumbled. “At this rate the whole town will know by tomorrow but whatever… Go ahead…”

            Stiles took a deep breath and slowly laid out for Lydia and Allison everything they knew, what they suspected, and even some of their wilder guesses. Stiles explained it all from the Hale house fire, to the video Derek had gotten, the strange note and Barrow’s attack…and now the possible connection to Jackson’s biological parents, and the strange links to organized crime they’d found in Gordon’s Millers files, tracking something in Beacon Hills in the months leading up to his death in a seemingly random car crash. Allison hung back with Scott out of Stiles’ field of vision, but Lydia was in front of him. She listened patiently, her face unreadable as Stiles laid it all out, Derek jumping in twice with a brief addition of some detail Stiles had left out.

            “…You don’t have it.” Lydia finally said.

            Stiles frowned. “What?”

            “The three pillars of any criminal case-means, motive and opportunity.” Lydia explained. “You have possible motives for what happened to the Hales and the Millers, and several parties could have had opportunity to do something…but you’re missing the means. You can’t prove yet a crime was actually committed in either of these cases which makes the rest meaningless…”

            “Don’t you think I know that?” Stiles huffed. “The arson investigation came back clean. I had Erica slip me a copy of her dad’s insurance report but so far I haven’t been able to find anything there that can help.”

            “What about the Millers' case?” Lydia asked. “Those files are older they’ll probably be easier to access…”

            Jackson turned to face Stiles then too. “Did you look at those Stilinski?”

            “I-well I _would_ have gotten to it.” Stiles fumbled. It was a good idea, and honestly if the last twenty-four hours had been less of an emotional roller coaster for him he probably would have gotten around to looking for the files on the Millers’ crash. Stiles’ eyes flicked back to Derek again briefly. _Let’s not go down that rabbit hole again right now…_ Stiles sighed thinking. “We’ll need to try and find them somewhere outside the sheriff’s department though. My dad already thinks I’ve been acting a little odd, the last thing I need is for him to find me poking around confidential files…”

            “Because heaven forbid you get _grounded_ while trying to find out if someone murdered two families.” Jackson rolled his eyes.

            “Well seeing as I was the one who started looking into all this in the first place-and me being grounded would put a serious damper on that-yeah I’d like to avoid it.” Stiles snapped.

            “Are we even sure they would have run full autopsies on the Millers?” Ethan squeezed Jackson’s shoulder gently. “I mean if it looked like a cut and dry car crash…”

            Stiles shook his head. “I don’t know…”

            “…What about the hospital?” Allison asked.

            Everyone turned to look at her curiously.

            Stiles sighed. “What about it?”

            “Well if Jackson was delivered there they’d have records right? There could be something in their files from when the Millers were brought in that might help…”

            Lydia nodded. “The medical examiner would have had to make a few notes at least. The hospital should have copies of all those documents.”

            “Scott’s mom might be able to help…” Aiden added.

            “I don’t know if my mom would have access to that sort of thing.” Scott said worriedly. “And even if she did I don’t want to do anything that could risk getting her in trouble…”

            “We won’t.” Stiles declared firmly. “But her working there still might be able to help. No one would think it was that weird if you were hanging around up there…you could help keep a lookout while someone else tried to get the files.”

            “And while the two of you are doing that we can go though some more of the files here.” Lydia cracked her knuckles and reached for a folder. “There could be something else here that might help…”

            Stiles nodded. “Makes sense.” He turned to Scott and laughed. “Guess we’re heading right back to where we came from then…”

***

            The records room in the basement of the hospital was sealed up tight, so Stiles and Scott decided to risk finding a computer someone had left logged on to the hospital database instead. They’d been wandering around the floor Scott’s mom was assigned to that day again to try and avoid and suspicion. So far though they hadn’t seen anyone with a computer. But then a stroke of luck-a doctor came out of the room Isaac Lahey was still in with a rolling computer stand, and got called away by a nurse to check on another patient. Stiles looked both ways down the hall quickly, making sure the coast was clear before grabbing the computer and rolling it into the empty room next door. Scott took up a post by the door nervously, keeping a lookout while Stiles tried to find the file they needed.

            “There you are.” Scott’s mom rounded the corner and he nearly jumped out of his skin. The blinds to the room Stiles had ducked into were almost all the way down, but a small glow from the computer screen was still visible it you looked closely enough.

            “Hey Mom.” Scott smiled awkwardly.

            “I just about to call when I heard you were here.” Melissa turned to look behind Scott, focused not on the room where Stiles was hiding, but on Isaac’s. “You heard what happened?”

            Scott just nodded.

            “He’s going to need a place to stay for a bit while all this gets sorted out. I told the Sheriff he could live with us.”

            Scott frowned. “What?”

            “We have an extra bedroom and it’s the right thing to do.” Melissa smiled. “I know you too aren’t the closest but I’m sure he could really use some friends right now so try to reach out to him okay?”

            Scott turned back to look. Isaac was almost a head taller than Scott, but looking at him in the hospital room he just seemed so small, closed in on himself. Isaac was sitting in the room’s chair just staring out the window. “When does he get released?” Scott asked.

            “That was the other reason I wanted to talk to you-he’s cleared to leave now. I was hoping we could talk to him together. Then maybe you can take him with you wherever you and Stiles are off to after this.”

            “S-Stiles?”

            Melissa nodded. “One of the other aides said she saw him wandering around too. Where is he anyways?”

            “Uh-Bathroom.” Scott answered weakly.

            “Right…” Melissa took Scott’s hand and squeezed. She nodded to Isaac’s room. “Well? You ready to do this?”

            Scott nodded.

            Melissa eased the door open and offered Isaac a reassuring smile. “Isaac sweetie? It’s me again. Scott and I wanted to talk with you a little…”

***

Stiles caught enough pieces of Scott’s conversation with his mom to know he had to hurry. Melissa might be more than familiar with Stiles’ eccentricities at this point, but even she would question things if he was gone in the bathroom for too long. More so probably since she knew the kind of trouble he could get up to, Stiles thought with a smile.

            Luckily the computer proved fairly easy to navigate. Whichever doctor had left themselves logged in had all the access Stiles needed, and in just under a minute he was combing through old medical examiner reports looking for the one for the Millers. Finally he found it. As eager as he was to read it right there Stiles knew he didn’t have time. He pulled out his phone and took several quick pictures, careful to make sure he captured the entire document. Stiles didn’t want to risk printing it here and having someone find a record of it.

            Finished, he closed out of the files and poked his head into the hall. Coast clear, he eased the door open the rest of the way and placed the computer just inside the door of the now empty room, hoping it would look like someone just moved it there to clear the hallway. He was just in time to. No sooner had he finished positioning it just the way he wanted, then Scott and Melissa came back out of the room next door, Isaac trailing meekly behind them.

            “Stiles there you are.” Melissa smiled. “I was telling Isaac here he was cleared to head out. I thought he might like spending the day with you and Scott…”

            “Uh-“ Stiles froze. He knew bringing Isaac back with them to the Miller house wasn’t a great idea, but there was no way in hell he was going to cross Melissa McCall when she was trying to do the right thing, and Isaac had been through enough already without Stiles making him feel unwanted. “Yeah sure. That’d be great.”

            “I was just saying we could go grab something to eat.” Scott said. “I heard someone earlier saying the hospital food wasn’t that great, and I’m kind of hungry myself.”

            _Plus that will give us a little time to try and figure something out._ Stiles thought. At the very least they could text the others and give them a heads up. “Sounds perfect.”

***

            An hour later, stomachs full, they headed back to the Miller house. Scott and Stiles had let the others know Isaac was coming, and had try to give Isaac at least a vague explanation of what they were up to. Isaac didn’t seem to really care, barely even talking during lunch unless he had to. There was a vacant, wounded look in his eyes that Stiles had a feeling had nothing to do with his physical injuries.

            When they got into the office again Stiles fired up the older desktop and pulled up his email to print off the pictures he’d been able to take of the medical examiner’s report. Isaac was still perfectly quiet in the face of the disarray in front of him, though Stiles noticed he seemed to gravitate closer to Aiden once he caught sight of him.

            “Were you able to find anything else here?” Stiles asked.

            “Maybe.” Lydia was working her way though another stack of papers. “Allison left a little bit ago to run down an idea she had.”

            “Anything promising?”

            Lydia shrugged. “She didn’t say.”

            Stiles printed off the single page report, feeling less confident in the success of finding the file when he saw how little information was actually there. Scrunched up on his phone screen he’d been able to convince himself the file could be helpful, but skimming it now there wasn’t anything they didn’t already know. Stiles sighed and tossed the report on top of some of the other papers piling up on the desk.

            “Well that was a bust…”

            “Let me see it.” Lydia reached out her hand without looking up from the file she was already reading.

            Stiles sighed again and tossed it to her. “Knock yourself out.”

            Lydia read it carefully, frowning. She flipped the page over, clearly hoping for more just like Stiles.

            “Where’s the rest of it?”

            “That’s it.” Stiles huffed. “I told you it was a waste…”

            “No look…” Lydia stood up and pointed to the upper left corner of the page. “See?”

            Stiles shook his head. There was nothing there except some random marks from the copier. “No?”

            “Here-“ Lydia tapped the page. “That’s the shadow of a staple on the original. There’s a second page to the report.”

            On closer examination Stiles could see she was right. He hadn’t thought anything of it before because there was only one page in the hospital records. “That was all there was in the computer…”

            Derek scowled, watching the exchange. Stiles could tell he still wasn’t happy with having so many more people involved. “What are you saying? Someone got rid of part of the report?”

            “There’s always the possibility of the second page being redundant I suppose…but combined with everything else…” Lydia shrugged. “I’d say it’s a possibility.”

            “How does that help us then?” Jackson asked. “Just knowing there’s more information isn’t any good if we don’t actually know what it _is_.”

            “Could we track down the original?” Scott wondered.

            “There was a fire in the records room about ten years.” _And wasn’t that convenient?_ Stiles grimaced. “All the surviving records are digital.”

            “What about the M.E?” Ethan shrugged. “Someone had to sign the report right?”

            Stiles looked down for the signature. “It’s says here…Julia Baccari.”

            “What do we know about her?” Aiden asked.

            Stiles copied the name into his search engine. He groaned. “She died a week after the fire in the records room…”

            Aiden banged his head back against the filing cabinets. “Well this conspiracy is certainly starting to seem more real…”

            “The M.E. and the records both going up in smoke?” Stiles shook his head. “Seriously what are the chances-no way these are all accidents…”

            “…w-well there was no body…if-if that helps any…”

            Stiles’ head whipped back around to Isaac. “What did you say?”

            “I recognize that name…from one of the plots…”Isaac’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “But there’s not actually anyone buried there…”

            “Isaac-“ Stiles was fighting to keep his voice even, not wanting to spook him. “Do you think you could take me to that grave?”

***

            The drive to the cemetery felt very surreal. Less than twenty-four hours ago Stiles had been making this exact same drive to try and wrangle Derek. And then-Stiles sighed, well needless to say he was having some pretty conflicted feelings about coming back here right now, even with a possible lead.

            “Seriously Stiles what’s going on?” Scott asked in a low voice. He’d been on Stiles about this all day ever since he’d seen the way Stiles reacted to Derek that morning.

            “Look-“ Stiles threw a quick glance behind him to where Isaac, and Aiden of all people were riding. Stiles had planned on just bringing Scott and Isaac along with him, but after a quick discussion with Ethan, Aiden had volunteered himself to come as well. “It’s not a big deal alright? Can we talk about this later?”

            “Fine.” Scott said pointedly. “So long as we do actually talk about it.”

            They rode in silence after that. When they finally got to the cemetery the gates were closed up, so they parked outside and Isaac let them in through a small side door with a key.

            Isaac hovered by the gate a moment awkwardly as the others started to walk forward. Aiden noticed first.

            “What is it?”

            “S-do you think I should open the gate? Normally my dad would have but…”

            _But he’s probably in a jail cell somewhere right now_. Stiles mentally finished. He frowned.

            Aiden just shrugged. “You can open it if you want to. Otherwise I’m sure people will understand it being closed for a couple days.”

            “Yeah?”

            “Yeah it’ll be fine.” Aiden said confidently. “I’m sure if anybody really needs to get in they’ll let you know.”

            Isaac nodded slowly. “Yeah…okay…”

            “So where is this grave at?” Stiles asked.

            Isaac waved them towards the far end of the cemetery. “It’s back by my dad’s office…

            Sure enough the name of the stone matched the M.E. just like Isaac had thought. And if he was right that no one was actually buried here that raised a whole heap of new questions. Stiles looked to the small office behind them thinking. “Did your dad-I mean-“ Stiles winced a little. Isaac didn’t seem to react to the slip, but Aiden was glaring at Stiles. “Are there records in there? Like who might have paid for the plot and stuff?

            Isaac nodded and fished his keys back out of his pocket. The door creaked open, letting a little of the fading afternoon light into the office. Really it looked to Stiles more like a small shed, though there was a desk set up in one corner and several filing cabinets stacked against the opposite wall. A photo of a boy who resembled Isaac with darker hair was displayed prominently, the boy’s hair wet from the pool behind him and a medal slung proudly around his neck.

            “Your brother?” Stiles asked. He vaguely remembered hearing Camden Lahey was a champion swimmer before he’d joined the army. He’d been a bit of a local hero, and Stiles knew several people had taken it hard when he’d been killed.

            “Yeah…” Isaac consulted a map of the cemetery quickly, looking for what Stiles wasn’t sure, before he opened one of the filling cabinets and started digging through the folders there. Finally he pulled out the one he seemed to want. He passed it to Stiles. “Here…”

            “Thanks.” Stiles opened the file curiously. There was a picture of Julia Baccari in what looked like her lab uniform, and a death certificate. The next of kin was listed as a Jennifer Blake, but there wasn’t any address for her in the file, which made that something of a dead end. Stiles flipped to the billing information at the back of the folder and sighed. It was all listed just by account numbers. Stiles hadn’t expected a big flashing red sign or anything announcing the information he needed, but just once he’d like it if the answer to a question didn’t just bring up more questions.

            “What is it?” Scott leaned over Stiles’ shoulder to look at the file.

            “The billing information may as well be Greek for all the good this will do me…” Stiles ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I don’t know how I’m going to track this account number back to its source…” Stiles frowned, breaking off mid rant as he saw Scott was still staring at the paper looking slightly dumbfounded. “Scott? Scotty what is it?”

            “I-I think I know who paid for everything…”

            “What?” Stiles gaped at him. “How?”

            “I help Deaton with the books sometimes…”

            “Deaton, your boss?” Stiles frowned. What does he have to do with any of this?”

            Scott pointed down to the bill. “That number there…the account that paid for all the funeral and burial expenses…that’s the veterinary clinic’s bank account number.”

            Stiles froze for a moment. “Call him. Call him right now.”

            “What?” Scott’s confusion was evident.

            “Scotty we just found evidence he might have helped fake the death of maybe the one person who could tell us more about what happened to the Millers…”

            “Okay…” Scott pulled out his phone and dialed, his hand trembling just a little.

            There was a small click as Deaton picked up somewhere on the other end of the line. “Scott what can I do for you? I didn’t expect to hear from you on your day off…”

            Stiles made a grabbing motion for the phone.

            “One second sir…” Scott sighed and handed it over.

            “Dr. Deaton-“

            “Mr. Stilinski…well this is a surprise.”

            “Yeah probably not as big a one as Scott and I finding out you paid for Julia Baccari’s funeral-a funeral where no actual body was buried…”

            The phone fell silent. Scott eyed it nervously. “Dr. Deaton…”

            “I’ll be at the clinic in one hour. I can answer your questions there.” With that the line went dead.

            Stiles grimaced and reached for his phone.

            “What are you doing?” Scott asked.

            “Calling Derek.” Stiles huffed. “It we’re going to finally get some answers he should be there.”

            “And how’s he going to do that?” Aiden asked, suddenly pulling Stiles from his thoughts. “He rode with you guys to the Miller house…”

            “Parrish can take him. He’ll follow Derek there anyways, he may as well give him a ride…” _Plus_ Stiles thought, _if it turns out someone needs to arrest Scott’s boss it’d be better to have an actual sheriff’s deputy there to do it._ Not that Stiles had any plans of mentioning that to Scott. Scott’s admiration for his boss had always blinded him to some of Deaton’s strangeness. Stiles refocused again as he heard Derek finally pick up.

            “Derek? It’s me. You’re gonna want to hear this…”

***

            The lights were on in the Animal Clinic by the time they arrived. Derek was leaning up against the side of Parrish’s squad car brooding, and Parrish looking a little green, was still behind the wheel.

            “You okay?” Stiles asked.

            Parrish smiled. “Just something I ate.”

            “I think Isaac and I will hang out here.” Aiden said.

            “What?” Stiles frowned.

            “The clinic isn’t exactly a big space to begin with…pack too many people in and it’s going to get even less fun. Besides this will give Isaac and I a chance to catch up.” Aiden nodded to Parrish. “And we can keep an eye on him too.”

            “Uh…” Stiles genuinely had no idea _what_ Aiden was going for there, but he was anxious to get inside himself, and Isaac nodded agreeably. “Okay then…let us know I guess if anything happens…”

            Aiden give him a mock salute. “Will do.”

            Scott fiddled with his keys and unlocked the doors. Together he, Stiles and Derek stepped inside. The lobby was empty, but as the outside doors closed again, Deaton emerged from the back room, standing firmly in the doorway.

            “Boys…”

            “What do you know about all this?” Derek snapped.

            “Enough to be cautious.” Deaton’s voice was preternaturally calm.

            “Yeah we figured that much out for ourselves when a crazed killer came after us.” Stiles grumbled. “But thanks.”

            “I did try to warn you.”

            “You-wait-“ Stiles’ eyes narrowed. “You sent Derek that note?”

            Deaton nodded. “I did.”

            “So you knew something more was going on…Why the coded message to find the files? Why not just tell Derek or the sheriff what you knew?”

            “I had intended for Talia’s files to warn you off not encourage you all to keep digging.” Deaton gave a small shrug. “As for the sheriff’s department I’m sure you understand my reluctance there…given their history and my own-shall we say involvement with this case.”

            “How did you know where my mother was even keeping her files?” Derek growled.

            “Who do you think was helping inform her?” Deaton asked. “I told her what I could about the Miller case, and the possible leads he was investigating into a criminal network here in Beacon Hills.”

            Scott looked troubled. “How would you know so much about that?”

            Deaton gave him an almost paternal smile, but with an edge to it Stiles didn’t like. “My dear Scott…I haven’t always been a veterinarian.”

            “So what about Julia Baccari then?” Stiles' expression darkened. “Did you help fake her death or cover up the real thing?”

            “That I’m afraid-“

            “Just tell them Alan.” There was a sigh, and from behind Deaton a woman with long brown hair stepped into view. She was a little older, and presenting herself differently, but Stiles still recognized her.

            “You’re Julia Baccari.”

            “Jennifer Blake now.” She amended. “Though after tonight I suspect that may change again…”

            “Why would you fake your death?”

            She studied them all a moment. “You’ve been looking into the Miller case?”

            “Yes but-“

            “The fire that destroyed the old records room was no accident.” Jennifer said bitterly. “Though I’m sure you guessed that.”

            “What happened?”

            “A few months after the Millers’ accident I started asking a couple questions…why no one was following up on my report…The next day two sheriff deputies interviewed me and asked for copies of all my notes-anything I might have jotted down when writing the official report- they said it was to help the investigation.” Jennifer shuddered. “But somehow I knew… I was supposed to be there that night updating the records…

            _This was it._ At least one of the answers they’d been looking for was finally in reach. “What were they trying to hide?” Stiles asked.

            “When I did my examination of Gordon Miller I found a foreign substance in his system-aconite.”

            Scott frowned. “What’s that?”

            “Aconite like wolfsbane right?” Stiles said.

            Derek growled. “Someone poisoned him…”

            Jennifer nodded. “Even if he hadn’t been driving he would have died within minutes…”

            “The crash was just the excuse to cover it up…” Stiles shuddered. _And what did that mean for the sheriff’s department then? Based on that and the deputies talking to Jennifer it certainly sounded like they were heavily involved in the cover up…_ A sudden though occurred to Stiles. “That poison-it’s pretty fast acting isn’t it?

Jennifer exchanged a worried glance with Deaton. “Typically yes…”

            “So if we found out who Gordon Miller and his wife were meeting with before the accident-“

            “No.” Deaton shook his head. “This is too dangerous. Don’t you see-“

            “Everyone who gets too close to this ends up dead.” Jennifer warned. “I’ve only survived this long by letting them think an accident beat them to the punch. And I’m leaving town tonight. Nothing good will come of going down this road again.”

            “But your testimony- “ Stiles snapped.

            “My testimony gets me killed.” Jennifer cut him off at once. “Which is what will happened to you all if you aren’t careful-“

            “Guys?” Aiden’s raised voice carried in from outside. “We could use some help out here!”

            Stiles rushed back outside, Scott and Derek right behind him. Parrish was on his knees retching violently as Aiden hovered over him trying to help the ailing deputy.

            Parrish tried to say something but it was lost in another heave.

            Aiden grimaced. “He’s getting bad…”

            “Uh…” Parrish laughed feebly. “Shouldn’t have had lunch at Barany’s I guess…”

            Stiles paled. Barany’s was a big hangout for sheriff deputies when they were off duty, boasting a bar and all the cheap greasy food you could want. The restaurant was owned by an old deputy himself, and anyone who worked for the sheriff’s department-now or in years past ate for half price. It felt like too big of a coincidence that Parrish would have eaten there before he got sick.

            Deaton had followed them out and apparently come to the same conclusion. “I’ll take care of him you all get out here!”

            “Dr. Deaton-“

            “Now Scott.” There was a hard glint to Deaton’s eye that made Stiles’ blood run cold. “I can take care of myself…”

            The five of them-Stiles, Scott, Derek, Isaac and Aiden all piled into Stiles' jeep. It was a tight fit, but no one was arguing. Stiles threw Roscoe into gear and peeled out of the parking lot. They had to get to the Miller house.

***

            When they finally got back to the Miller house night had fallen. The lights were on in the office, and Stiles could see Lydia, Ethan and Jackson all hard at work. Stiles grabbed the first available parking spot and hopped out. “Let’s go everybody.”

            A sheriff’s car rounded the corner and pulled up to the house. Stiles waved for the others to go ahead.

            “Hey.” The deputy had rolled down the window and gave Stiles a friendly wave. It was Woodward he realized.

            “Did my dad send you?” Stiles asked curiously.

            Woodward nodded. “Yeah. He heard Parrish was sick so he asked me to cover the detail for the rest of the night.”

            Stiles breathed a little easier knowing they had someone watching their backs. “Well thanks. We’ll just be inside…”

            Woodward nodded again and waved him off.

            Stiles jogged up the driveway and headed to the back door of the house. As he stepped inside he could hear raised voices arguing in the office.

            “-so you just let her leave?”

            “She wasn’t going to come with us.”

            “So you call the Sheriff or someone to make her come in!” Jackson shouted. “She’s the only one who can prove they were actually poisoned-“

            Ethan put a hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “Jackson-“

            Scott caught sight of Stiles coming back in. “Everything okay?”

            “Yeah.” Stiles took a deep breath trying to let himself relax. “My dad sent a new deputy since Parrish got sick.”

            “Stilinski! There you are-why would you let-“

            “Because we thought you all might be in danger.” Stiles sighed. “Parrish was there throwing up on the sidewalk after we’d just gotten talk of poison, and anyone coming near the case dying…”

            “You’re sure she said it was aconite right?” Lydia jumped in shooting Jackson a glare.

            Stiles nodded. “Yeah.” He saw Scott and Derek bob their heads in agreement.

            “Then we still have something we can use.” Lydia said in a tone that offered no room for arguments. “We can use the Millers’ schedule to try and figure out where they might have come into contact with the poison…”

            “Exactly.” Stiles turned to Lydia. “What have you been able to find for them on that day?”

            “Here…” Lydia moved a couple files around and pulled out a page of notes she’d been compiling.

            “Is there some event going on in town or something tonight?”

            That was such a non sequitur as to pull everyone’s attention to Aiden where he was leaning against the window and looking out at the road.

            Jackson gave him a baffled look. “What?”

            Aiden pointed out the window to where a car in one of the neighboring houses was backing out and pulling away. ‘That’s the fifth car I’ve seen leave in the last few minutes…”

            Stiles rolled his eyes. “I don’t know…” He looked back to the list Lydia had drawn up. “Half of these don’t make any sense…”

            “I know.” Lydia sighed. “Gordon Miller used a kind of shorthand with a lot of his schedules. Some of it I’ve been able to piece together…”

            “This one an hour before the crash…” Stiles pointed to the note as Derek and Isaac went over to look out the window with Aiden curiously. “A meeting? That’s all it said?”

            “Stiles-“

            “What about the cars now? Seriously-“ Stiles broke off as he looked up. Derek was staring out the window, his face a strange mix of anger and shock. Stiles stepped up around to the window curiously. “What is it?”

            “That man-“ Derek pointed to where Deputy Woodward had stepped out of his car and was leaning back against it now. “He works for the sheriff’s department?”

            “Yeah why?”

            “That’s the guy Kate was cheating on me with.” Derek growled.

            “Uh-“ Stiles’ mind blanked. He wasn’t sure what to do with that particular piece of information-

            “Wait Kate-as in Kate _Argent_?” Lydia asked taken aback.

            “She and Derek had a thing, it ended badly.” Stiles huffed. “Don’t ask…”

            “Argent…” Ethan paused, his face going a little white. “ _A_ meeting?”

            “What?” Stiles looked down at the note Lydia had copied over again. “Yeah ‘a meeting’ how does that help us?”

            Aiden’s eyed widened a bit. “The crash took place out on the highway by the preserve…

            “Yeah that’s-“ Stiles felt his stomach twist into a cold knot. _No…_

“…that’s near where the Argent’s live.” Lydia’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

            “What?” Scott gave them all a confused look. “You’re not really thinking _Allison_ or her family had anything to do with this?” His eyes flicked from one person to the next waiting for someone to agree the idea sounded crazy. “You’re not right?”

            “Where is she?” Derek’s voice was ice cold. “She was here before…”

            “She went to go run down another lead…” Lydia said softly. “Something she thought she might be able to use her dad’s records for…”

            “What lead?” Derek growled.

            Lydia shook her head. “I don’t know…”

            “This is nuts.” Scott coughed and reached for his phone. “I’m calling her right now…” Scott punched in the numbers and frowned.

            “What’s wrong?” Stiles asked.

            Scott turned his phone to show him. No signal was flashing across the screen. “It was working in here before…”

            Stiles grabbed for his own phone, his stomach dropping. He froze when he saw it, that same little message.

            _No signal._

***

            “Come on-come on where is it…” Allison grabbed for another box of her dad’s records and skimmed the file headers. In looking at Gordon Miller’s investigation into a possible criminal network in Beacon Hills she’d come across a name she recognized- Silverfinger. Allison remembered her dad mentioning a collector of rare guns and memorabilia that he’d sold a few pieces to over the years by that name. If she could find an address or something else to go with the name they might be able to track him down and see what other connections he might have…

            “Well this is a surprise…”

            Allison jumped, her breath catching in her chest. She knew she wasn’t really supposed to be in her dad’s office. Allison breathed a sigh of relief when she turned around to see who it was. “Aunt Kate…you scared me.”

            “Mm.” Kate’s eyes flashed over Allison and the files behind her. “What are you doing in here kiddo?”

            “My friends were looking into something-I recognized a name Dad had told me and thought I might be able to help…”

            “By going through his things when he’s not here?” Kate smiled.

            Allison shrugged. “It was important…”

            “It wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the Millers or the Hales would it?”

            Allison froze. “What did you say?”

            “Oh stop having fun with her Katie…”

            Allison stood rooted as her grandfather Gerard rounded the corner and stepped into the room. He was wearing the same dark grin as Kate.

            “I think it’s time we told her the truth don’t you?” He chuckled.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this has been really long in coming and I'm sorry for that. Life got pretty busy there for awhile. Hopefully this was worth the wait. :)
> 
> I'm planning at least one more chapter of this to tie up the main story and then maybe a short epilogue. It'll just depend on how the next chapter winds up playing out...

            “W-what are you talking about?” Allison gasped. _It couldn’t be. They couldn’t be-_

Gerard laughed. “First things first-phone and keys. Hand them over.”

            “I don’t understand-“

            Gerard snorted. “I’m not asking you to understand I’m telling you to listen. Phone and keys. Now.”

            Allison numbly fished them out of her pocket. Gerard snatched them up the moment she had them out stashing them in his own pocket. He grinned. “Now that we've taken care that-I’m talking about the family business! The one your little friends apparently seem intent on exposing.”

            Ice was pumping through Allison’s veins. It just didn’t seem possible. “You mean…”

            “We’re the one who took care of the Hales and the Millers sweetie.” Kate smiled, and somehow her almost comforting tone made the admission of multiple murders even worse.

            Allison could feel tears starting to well up and slip down her face. She just stared at her family as if seeing them for the first time. “Why…?” She whispered.

            “We had to.” Kate moved like she was going to wrap an arm around Allison’s shoulders. Allison flinched away. Kate sighed. “They were going to expose us.”

            “Expose what?”

            “What do you think?” Gerard barked. “Everything! Our business! Guns, money, all of it. Us and our allies! In this world you’re either the hunted or a hunter and this family will always be _hunters_.”

            “The Yakuza…and the Calaveras…”

            Gerard nodded. “They have their territories and we have ours. A relationship we’ve worked hard to establish.”

            “So we’re what?” Allison gave a choked off sob. “Part of some kind of mob?”

            “Oh sweetie…” Kate smiled again, completely devoid of warmth. “We’re so much more than that. We’ve been running this town from the shadows for _decades_. We’ve gotten rich from it all-and nothing happened in this town without us knowing about it.”

            Allison was reeling, the revelations about her family’s true nature throwing her completely off balance. Distantly she heard the garage door slam. Her parents were home. They rounded the corner and just looked so normal, still her mom and dad, carrying in some groceries of all things. They were smiling to each other, and just looked so altogether normal that some part of Allison still desperate to not believe, cleaved to the image like a lifeline. “Mom! Dad-“

            The illusion was shattered in an instant. When her parents turned to look, the smiles slid from their faces. Her mother hoisted the bag she was carrying off on Allison’s father and strode into the room all business. Victoria Argent slid into a chair easily, surveying the room as if they were discussing nothing more serious than a garden party.

            “You told her?”

            Gerard nodded. “It was time she knew. Caught her in here rifling through things…”

            “Mom-“

            “Hush Allison.” Her mother’s tone left no room for debate. “Sit down.”

            Allison slid slowly into a chair feeling numb. _This couldn’t really be happening. It had to be a dream. Or a joke-or something…anything-it couldn’t be real…_

Victoria smiled, but her face was almost unrecognizably cold. “Now dear…it’s time for you to truly become a member of this family…

            _It just couldn’t be real…_

 

***

            “-it’s not the Argents!” Scott protested.

            “Oh come on!” Jackson growled. “Stop thinking with your dick-

            “Right because you never-“

            “Will everybody just shut up for a minute!?” Stiles snapped. “How is nobody else freaking out over the fact that we have no signal in here all of a sudden?”

            Lydia nodded slowly. “We need to contact the Sheriff. Tell him what we know…”

            “We don’t _know_ anything-“ Scott started again, but broke off at a glare from Derek.

            “How do you plan on reaching Stiles’ dad if all our phones don’t work?” Ethan asked.

            That was Stiles’ thought exactly. He scanned the room his mind racing. The signal on their phones all dropping seemed like too big of a coincidence. The house they were in probably still had an old landline hooked up… “Do the phones in here still work?”

            “They should.” Jackson shrugged. “My parents still keep up the bills and things…”

            Stiles shook his head. For once the overindulgent habits of one of Beacon Hills’ richest families might actually work in his favor. He stuck his head out of the office searching for a phone. There was one mounted on the wall just a few feet. Stiles grabbed for it, pulling it off the hook and lifting it up to his ear triumphantly, his fingers already reaching for the buttons to dial-

            Only there was no dial tone. The phone was as dead as their cells…

            Cold dread rising up inside him, Stiles barreled back into the office.

            Derek already on edge, was the first to notice his look. “What’s wrong?”

            “Phones dead.” Stiles jabbed at the older computer on the desk. “Aiden fire that thing up and see if it gets Internet-

            Aiden hit the on button, the computer chiming loudly in the suddenly quiet room.

            Jackson frowned. “What do you mean it’s dead? It should be working fine-“

            “Well it’s not.” Stiles snapped. His eyes flicked nervously to the window. Woodward was still out there. On any other day Stiles might have just asked him to radio his dad, but with Derek’s bombshell and now the possible involvement of the Argents, Stiles’ whole world felt off balance. From their nervous looks and silence Stiles could tell the reality of the situation was hitting his friends too. Cell phones losing a signal might be a weird fluke but a landline-

            “It’s on.”

            Stiles climbed around the desk. “Pull up the web browser…”

            Aiden clicked on the icon and to Stiles relief it loaded. The home page was set to some old local news site, and as it came up a message flashed across the screen.

            “There’s some kind of gas leak?” Aiden frowned as he read the headline. “It says this part of town is being evacuated…”

            “The cars earlier…” Lydia’s voice was barely above a whisper. “You said they were all leaving…”

            “Well yeah-“ Aiden frowned. “But if there were really some kind of emergency why in the world would a sheriff’s deputy still be outside babysitting us?”

            “They wouldn’t Aid.” Ethan’s face was white as he turned towards Stiles, and Stiles had a feeling it matched his own. “…Would they?”

            Stiles shook his head slowly. Panic washed over him in waves. _What’s happening? What do we do?_

Derek looked back from the window his expression grim. He caught Stiles’ eye and opened his mouth slowly as if he was about to say something-

            And that was when the lights went out.

 

***

            _It was a dream- some kind of twisted nightmare-it had to be._ But as Allison sat there helplessly listening to her family describe the things they’d done in every gory detail she knew the truth. She couldn’t have dreamt this up. Not even in her worst moments could she have ever imagined something like this from her family, from the people she loved and trusted. Only Allison’s father was quiet, watching her carefully as the others spoke.

            In spite of herself, Allison kept turning back to Kate. She had stayed smiling the whole time, her manic grin making her almost a stranger to Allison’s eyes.

            “But Derek…” Allison knew she was grasping at straws but it felt like her brain just kept playing catch up-refusing to believe what she was hearing until she’d exhausted every other possibility… “-you loved him. I saw how upset you were when you broke up…”

            “Oh sweetie…” Kate smirked. “It’s cute that you think so.”

            Allison shook her head trying to square Kate’s ambivalence now with the emotions Allison had seen right after Kate and Derek had split. “I don’t-“

            “He had access to his mother’s files.” Kate sighed like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. “By dating him I could keep an eye on them-make sure Talia wasn’t sniffing around anything we didn’t want her to.”

            “So all that was just a lie too?” Allison could feel bile rising in her throat.

            “Mmm…” Kate shrugged. “He was a means a to an end. But it wasn’t all bad-Derek was actually pretty good in bed. It was kind of like having a library card that doubled as a decent dildo…”

            Allison’s stomach lurched and she dashed for the bathroom. She heaved, her entire body shaking as her stomach emptied into the toilet.

            Victoria shook her head. “Honestly…”

            “Stop.” Chris glared at his wife. “Give her a minute…we’re upending her entire life. You can’t expect her not to react to all this…”

            Victoria sighed throwing up her hands in disdain. “Fine.”

            A radio on the desk crackled to life and Kate snatched it up eagerly. “Andrew?”

            “We’re almost ready here babe. The others are on their way.”

            Kate grinned. “I’ll be right there.”

            “Kate!” Gerard stopped her just as she was about to step out of the room. “No mistakes this time.” He smiled, his tone light but Kate grimaced all the same. “It’s time you and Woodward clean up this mess you made…”

            Kate flipped up her jacket, the gun holstered underneath it glinting as the light hit it. “Consider it handled.”

 

***

            Stiles cursed. Scott gasped next to him, and Stiles caught a few choice swear words from Jackson.

            “They cut the power?”

            “Looks like it.” Stiles couldn’t see Lydia in the sudden shadows but he could hear the slight tremor in her voice.

            “Are you sure?” Scott wheezed softly his worry making his asthma flare up.

            “Pretty sure.” Stiles stumbled blindly over to the window, the little light coming in from the street his only guide as his eyes slowly adjusted. He nearly face planted into one of the filing cabinets, tripping over Aiden’s foot, only to be saved at the last minute by Derek’s firm grip on the back of his shirt collar. Stiles grimaced, silently cursing his clumsiness, and hoping Derek couldn’t see the color rising to his cheeks in the darkness. “Thanks…” Derek just gave him a small grunt of acknowledgement his eyes fixed back on the road.

            “-no I mean how would someone even do that-“

            “McCall would you please just shut up.” Jackson growled. But his voice lacked any of the arrogance Stiles had come to expect. Jackson just sounded scared-something Stiles could easily relate to at the moment. Stiles spared a quick look over his shoulder, but couldn’t make out anything but Jackson’s vague shape off to one side, Ethan standing close behind him.

            A flash of headlights passed over the window pulling Stiles attention back to it.

            “Is that another car?” Ethan whispered.

            Stiles nodded slowly, then realized Ethan probably couldn’t see the motion. “Yeah…” he whispered back. Logically there was almost no way Woodward or anyone else outside would be able to hear them from this distance, but it still felt somehow safer.

            “Look…” Derek pointed through the window where a half dozen or so people were climbing out of a van. All of them armed.

            Stiles winced. “They’ve got guns...”

            “Guns?” Isaac’s voice was barely audible from the back of the room. Stiles had almost forgotten he was even there.

            As his eyes slowly started to adjust Stiles caught a dark look from Aiden. “You’re not seriously saying they’re here to kill us?”

            “After everything we’ve uncovered here you really think they’d shy away from a few more murders to cover their tracks?”

            Aiden grimaced. “I just can’t believe-“

            A shot crashed through the window, barley missing Derek and sent shards of glass tinkling to the floor.

            “Does that answer your question?” Stiles swore and dove for cover. “Everyone okay?”

            A quick look around the room saw seven other pairs of wide shocked eyes, but Stiles got a slow nod of acknowledgement from each of them. He let out a pained breath he hadn’t intended to hold. “That was too close…”

            “They can’t hit us like this right?” Scott gasped.

            “They won’t have to.” Derek glowered. “There are enough of them they can just waltz right up the driveway and come inside. Start picking us off one by one…”

            “Always such an optimist…” Stiles huffed. Still he knew Derek was right. Stiles looked desperately around the room, hoping for some semblance of a plan to strike him. Nothing…

            “Is there anything here we can use to fight back?” Aiden growled. He turned to Jackson anxiously. “A gun? Knives? Anything?”

            Jackson shook his head bitterly. “I never had any reason to think I’d need a small arsenal at my biological parents' house!”

            Stiles though he caught a small smile from Aiden even with all the craziness in front of them.

            “Well that’s just poor planning.”

            Jackson let out a small snort of laughter.

            “Somebody will hear or see something right?” Scott murmured. “Someone has to help…”

            Lydia shook her head. “The gas leak…it’s the perfect cover.”

            Stiles nodded grimly. “And once they’ve finished us off they can just torch the place and blame it on some kind of explosion.

            Another shot sailed harmlessly through the window, peels of laughter echoing in after it.

            “Come out come out wherever you are…”

            Stiles’ right hand started shaking. He grabbed it quickly with his left trying to force himself to stay in control. _Have to focus. There has to be something…_ “Jackson is there another way out of here?” When he got no answer he hissed it again louder. “Jackson!”

            “Jackson.” Ethan nudged him gently.

            Jackson gave a small start, and seemed to snap back to the present. “Right-uh there’s another door but it just leads into the backyard…”

            “Show us.”

            Jackson nodded and made a move towards the hall.

            “You want us to go out there?” Isaac gasped. Even in the dim study Stiles could see he was pale as a sheet.

            “It beats staying where they know to find us.” Aiden grimaced. He wrapped an arm around Isaac’s shoulders pulling him closer to the rest of the group. “C’mon this is our best chance…”

            “The woods.”

            “What?” Stiles’ eyes found Lydia’s in dark. “What about them?”

            “The backyard connects to the Beacon Hills preserve. If we get there-“

            “We might be able to lose them in the woods.” Stiles finished.

            Lydia nodded. “We can come out in another part of town and go for help.”

            Stiles could hear footsteps on the driveway outside now as Woodward and whoever else he’d brought with him made their way steadily closer. They were almost at the house…

            Stiles unhooked his belt, his jeans sagging slightly at the released tension.

            “Stilinski what the hell are you doing?”

            “Getting some insurance.” Stiles grabbed some of the top folders they’d been looking at from Gordon Miller’s files and shoved them into the waistband of his pants. He then quickly retightened his belt effectively pinning the files to his side. “Assuming we make it out of here these’ll help put those bastards away.”

            Jackson’s reply was cut off by a bang as the intruders pounded on the door to the Miller house. Wordlessly Jackson raced out of the room the others right behind him, Stiles and Derek bringing up the rear. Jackson seemed to have no trouble navigating the house in the dark, but more than once Stiles banged his knee on a box he’d missed, or heard a similar noise from one of the others in front of him. Stiles winced and not just from the small shooting pain. Extra noise was the last thing they needed right now. But with Woodward and his gang so close he supposed speed trumped caution.

            Stiles was completely turned around by the time Jackson finally stopped. The lack of light and the unfamiliar layout of the house left him with no idea where they actually were in relation to their pursuers and their goal of the backyard. He just had to trust Jackson knew where he was going. A slam from somewhere behind them as the door finally swung open, and the accompanying shout of triumph was enough to send a shiver down his spine. Jackson spared a nervous glance back in that direction before slowly easing the door in front of him open.

            The door opened up on the opposite side of the house from where they’d all come in. The woods and their one shot at escape lay maybe thirty feet back from the house. There wasn’t even a hint of cover between the house and the trees-nothing but the open yard and neatly trimmed grass. And while the angle of the house put the door they had just come out of out of sight from where the gunmen would be entering it also meant Stiles and the others couldn’t see if any were still outside.

            “Do we make a break for it?” Scott asked.

            Waiting would only delay the inevitable, and risk the men inside the house figuring out where they’d went. Stiles grimaced. “On three…”

            “3…”

            “2…”

            “1…” Stiles paused a moment, looking around at his friends and hoping this wasn’t a huge mistake. “Go!”

            As one they burst out running, rounding the side of the house-and taking them right into the line of sight of the two men guarding the other door. Time seemed to slow for Stiles as he watched the two men spot them and grab for the weapons on their hips. Then bullets were flying and Stiles was running blindly trying to dip and weave around a danger he couldn’t see. The woods loomed up before him-so close…

            Stiles heard a gasp of pain from his right and saw one of his friends stumble out of the corner of his eye. Whoever it was got back up a moment later, but Stiles could see the small pool of red on the otherwise green lawn. Someone had been shot. Stiles just hoped it wasn’t serious. He stumbled blindly into the trees one of the gunmen hot on his heels and shouting for backup.

            Stiles lost sight of his friends among the trees, his eyes flashing down to try and avoid any roots or holes. It was in doing so that he managed to run smack into a low hanging branch, knocking himself to the ground.

            As his senses slowly returned to him, one of Woodward’s men loomed over him. He couldn’t have been more then twenty-five, but he had a cold grin on his face that made Stiles doubt this was the first time he’d done this sort of thing.

            “Well, well, well, looks like I got one.” The man swung his gun around aiming it at Stiles’ head. “And the Sheriff’s son to boot.” He laughed. “That’s a nice little bonus I suppose…You kids should have kept your noses out of other people’s business.”

            Stiles rolled his eyes, his nervous terror somehow making him bold. “In general I make it a rule not to take advice from people pointing guns at me.”

            The man snorted and flicked the safety off on his gun. “Funny.”

            Before he could fire the man was suddenly tackled. The gun went off, swinging wide and kicking up small shards of wood as the bullet embedded itself in the tree just behind Stiles. Stiles scrambled back to his feet as his attacker wrestled for control of the gun with the man who had tackled him. Stiles looked for anything he could use to help his would be rescuer-a rock, a branch anything. Finally the gunman went limp and Derek Hale swayed to his feet, a bruise already forming under his left eye and a small cut on his lip.

            “And this is why I didn’t want other people involved.” Derek said a little breathlessly.

            Stiles couldn’t help but smile. “Like you’d have even gotten to this point without all our help.”

            Derek just cocked an eyebrow back at him in a way Stiles should really stop finding sexy. He sighed. “Well if I’m going to die a virgin horribly in the woods at least I got one good kiss out of all this…” He’d meant to just mumble it to himself but from the way Derek’s head whipped back around it was clear he’d heard.

            “What?”

            Stiles waved him off. “Nothing…”

            “You thought it was good?”

            Stiles frowned. “I thought you didn’t remember-“

            A small smile tugged at Derek’s lips. “I never said that…”

            “You were drunk.”

            “I wasn’t _that_ drunk.”

            Stiles crossed his arms, glaring slightly at Derek. “You said you’re memory of that night was a little spotty…”

            “Of what happened after the cemetery.” Derek took a small step closer to Stiles his eyes boring back into Stiles’. “You were the one who said maybe that was for the best.”

            “I-I just thought you’d regret it.” Stiles’ whole focus was on Derek now, the danger around them temporarily forgotten. “You were drunk. And before that you’d never said or done anything…”

            “I don’t.” Derek said quietly. “Regret it.”

            “Oh…” Stiles throat suddenly felt incredible dry.

            Derek loomed over him, so close now Stiles could track the small trickle of blood from his lip down to his chin. “Do you?”

            Stiles stood frozen for a moment-and then finally took the plunge.

            “No.”

            This time Stiles initiated the kiss. Leaning up and pressing his lips into Derek’s. The tinges of copper from Derek’s cut rushed into Stiles’ mouth with a taste that could only be Derek. Stiles wanted to memorize it.

 

***

            Allison wipped her mouth still hovering over the toilet bowl. Her parents' voices drifted in from the next room.

            “-they’re children!”

            “Please.” Her mother sighed. “Let’s not pretend this is the first time any of us have gotten our hands dirty. We’re doing what’s necessary.”

            “None of this is necessary! How can we-“

            “Victoria is right.” Gerard’s harsh laugh cut across her father’s words. “We’ve all gotten our hands dirty before Chris.”

            “I don’t hurt kids. Taking out a rival or bringing some criminals to heel is one thing. This is going too far.”

            “You’ve gone soft!” Gerard snapped. “You’ve always been weak. It’s why you’ll never lead this family…”

            “I wouldn’t want to.”

            “Chris!”

            Allison heard a door slam and a moment later her father was helping her up.

            “W-what?” Allison stammered.

            “C’mon on.” Her father ushered her into the garage.

            “CHRIS!” Her mother screamed after them. “Don’t do this-“

            Her father helped her into the passenger seat of the car before dashing around to the driver’s side door. He slid the keys into the ignition just as Allison saw her mother storm out of the house and stand behind the car.

            “Stop.” Her mother was as angry as Allison had ever seen her.

            Her father threw the car into reverse and began slowly backing towards her mother. “Move Victoria.”

            “No.”

            They stopped for a moment her parents locked in a silent challenge. Allison was still struggling to catch up.

            “Dad what-“

            “Hold on.” Her father turned the wheel quickly, swerving around her mother and out of the garage scrapping away the passenger side mirror and putting a large dent into the wall in the process.

            The tires squealed as her father finished backing out of the driveway and took a fast turn onto the main road. Allison could still just see her mother fuming in the driveway as the car raced away. Allison turned back to her father at a loss for words.

            “Here.” Chris rummaged into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out Allison’s phone.

            “What-“

            “Take it.” Chris pushed the phone into Allison’s hands.

            “I don’t understand…”

            “Call the Sheriff.” Chris said grimly. “We’re going to save your friends…”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was my last planned chapter, but I'm working on a short epilogue that will probably be up in a day or two hence the update to the number of chapters. Hope everyone enjoys. :)

            Time seemed to stand still for Stiles. Some distant, rationale part of his brain was still aware of the very real danger potentially closing in around them, but the rest was just _Derek_. The feel of his lips on Stiles’. The firm muscles in his back that Stiles could feel even under the leather jacket he always seemed to wear. Derek’s hands, one in Stiles’ close cut hair and the other wrapped tight around his waist pulling him in close. It felt like Stiles was floating, buoyed up by an inner warmth that was stoked higher with Derek’s every touch. Stiles’ whole body felt like it was in overdrive, every tiny sensation a thousand times stronger than it had been even minutes before.

            From somewhere behind him Stile heard the sound of footsteps. “There you guys are… oh seriously?”

            Being otherwise occupied it was taking Stiles a second to place the voice. Still, given how the last one of the Argents’ men had acted Stiles figured it was safe to assume it was one of his friends.

            “Seriously-hello? Earth to Stilinski?”

            Stiles groaned. _Oh course it would be Jackson…_ But then Derek was kissing him again and even that didn’t seem to matter.

            “Is this what the two of you have been doing? Standing around making our while they’re people running around trying to kill us?” Not getting any response Jackson just got louder- which really kind of put a damper on him trying to chew Stiles and Derek out for being distracted, when he was risking bringing anyone listening nearby right to them…

            “Screw this…”

            Stiles’ momentary victory of getting to annoy Jackson on top of kissing Derek was cut short when a small rock bounced off the back of his head-not big enough to really hurt, but certainly enough to finally get him to turn around. “God what?” Stiles finally snapped. “And will you shut up please? Or if not at least try and be just a _little_ quieter?”

            Derek was glaring at Jackson. Honestly if looks could kill he would probably be in need of a pretty good lawyer. Derek reached down and scooped up the pebble Jackson had thrown, rolling it between his fingers slowly. Faced with the full weight of Derek’s ire Jackson looked pretty nervous. Stiles smiled to himself. He probably shouldn’t find Derek’s anger as sexy as he did.

            “Right…” Jackson coughed awkwardly, and for the first time Stiles noticed how worried he actually seemed. “Have either of you guys seen the others?”

            Stiles shook his head. “Derek found me…I haven’t seen anyone.” Stiles sighed, the reality of the situation forcing his euphoria back down again. “Did you see who got hit?”

            Jackson frowned. “What?”

            “When we were running for the woods.” Derek said gruffly. “Someone got shot.”

            Jackson paled suddenly. “No-do you think-“

            “Who ever it was got back up.” Stiles tried to think back replaying the moment in his mind. “They made it into the woods.”

            “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t serious…” Jackson raked a hand through his hair. “What are we going to do? We’re completely separated and these woods are probably full of people trying to kill us…”

            Stiles nodded. “We need to try and find the others…”

            “Oh you mean instead of making out like a pair of idiots?” Jackson said bitterly. “Gee wish I’d thought of that…”

            “Watch it.” Derek growled.

            As nice as Derek’s sudden protectiveness was Stiles was more willing to give Jackson a pass on that one given his own boyfriend and friends were still missing. _Wait-boyfriend? Is that what Stiles and Derek were now? They hadn’t really talked about it but-_ Stiles shook his head. There’d be time for that later-assuming of course they all survived the night. He had to focus.

            “What we really need is a place to lay low.” Stiles said. “Somewhere to hide until we can figure out what to do…”

            “Can’t we just make a beeline for the nearest exit?” Jackson huffed. “Find the others then get to some house and call for help?”

            “You want to take the chance they won’t have staked out any other houses near here?” Stiles asked. “Besides their jamming cell phones remember? Do you really think there are going to be any other working landlines around here?” Hardly anyone in Beacon Hills seemed to use them anymore, everyone just preferring their cells, and Stiles for one didn’t want to risk his safety on the chance some random house would still have one. “What about the Nemeton?” Stiles asked.

            “Neme-what?”

            But Derek shook his head. “It’s on the other side of the preserve. Miles away from here.”

            “Damn it.” Stiles sighed.

            “But I might have another idea…” Derek frowned. “There were some old tunnels under my house…connected down to the cellar.”

            “Why the hell did you have secret tunnels in your basement?” Jackson asked.

            “They put them in when the house was built in case the family ever needed a safe escape route. Something secret…”

            “Hm.” Stiles mulled it over. “That’s a little closer but your house is still pretty far away.” Not to mention Stiles wasn’t sure he wanted to trust the structural integrity of a tunnel that had the burned wreckage of a house sitting on top of it. But he didn’t think saying _that_ to Derek would help any.

            “One of the tunnels comes out into the woods.” Derek said slowly. “I should be able to find it.”

            Jackson cocked an eyebrow skeptically. “Should or can?”

            “ _Can._ ” Derek glared back at him. “And I don’t hear you coming up with anything better.”

            “Fine.’ Jackson shrugged. “But we find the others first.”

            Stiles nodded. “Let’s go…”

 

***

            “-Sheriff please I’m trying to-“ Allison groaned as he interrupted again.

            “Where are they?”

            “I don’t know.” Allison felt her guilt twist again deep in her gut. _Her own family…_ “Last I talked to them they were at the Miller house-“

            “The gas company says that whole area’s in danger of a possible leak! Are they- “

            “-there’s no gas.” Chris leaned over closer to Allison’s phone, his eyes still locked on the road. “That was one of our people.”

            “I can’t believe your family is responsible for all this-“

            “Sheriff with all due respect we can hash out all the things my family is responsible for later. Right now if you want a shot at preventing any more death just meet us at the Miller house!”

            The line was silent for a minute. “Fine…” The strain in the Sheriff’s voice was clear. If his own son wasn’t involved Chris had a feeling the Sheriff might have pressed further. “I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

 

***

            Stumbling around in the woods at night officially sucked. Stiles had nearly tripped twice already, and had managed to scratch up the palm of his left hand on some random thorns they’d passed at some point. But at least they’d been able to find Lydia and Scott. Scott was still pretty out of breath from the sprint they’d made from the house. Worse, he managed to drop his inhaler at some point. Stiles glanced over his shoulder worriedly. Lydia was helping him along all right for now, but Scott was wheezing pretty hard.

            “How much further is it?” Stiles whispered to Derek. “To this tunnel I mean?”

            “I’m not sure exactly…” Derek nodded back to Scott. “Will he be okay?”

            “If we can get somewhere so he can rest for awhile it’ll help.” Stiles shrugged. “Other then that there’s not much we can do to help without his inhaler. I’ve got a spare one stashed in Roscoe but there’s no way we’re getting back there…”

            “Should we stop for a minute?” Derek asked.

            “I don’t know…” Stiles grimaced. “I don’t love the idea of staying out in the open any longer than we have to…” Stiles sighed. “And there’s still the others too…” He looked to his left at Jackson. Jackson was getting twitchier the longer they went without finding the twins, and while Jackson had been happy enough to find Lydia and Scott, Stiles knew the fact that they were uninjured had to be weighing on Jackson. Hell it was weighing on Stiles. Not that he would ever wish ill on any of his friends, but it would have made things a little easier to know how badly injured the person who had gotten hit was. Stiles had the sudden image of one of his friends bleeding and alone in the woods. On the verge of passing out, unable to answer their whispered calls…Stiles shuddered. _Not helping._ He needed to try and stay focused. To find something-

            Derek’s arm whipped out in front of Stiles, stopping him from taking another step.

            “Wha-“

            Derek pressed a finger to his lips and shook his head. Stiles nodded once. Derek tilted his head, ears straining. Stiles frowned. Had he missed something? Stiles didn’t think he’d heard anything, but so far Derek had proven to better at this than him.

            “…what was that?”

            “Shh!”

            This time Stiles caught it, at least two whispered voices, back a ways from where Stiles and the others were walking. “Guys?” Stiles called out cautiously, raising his voice as much as he dared.

            “Stilinski?”

            Stiles heaved a sigh of relief and jogged towards the voice, Jackson right behind him. There was a small hill ahead, and round the corner of it huddled up in a bed of tree roots sat Isaac and the twins. Aiden was clutching a thick stick he must have picked up at some point as a makeshift weapon, and Isaac was wedged back into the roots as far as he could manage. Between them, looking a bit pale in the face, was Ethan. He had his hand pressed against his leg, and Stiles could see flecks of blood underneath. Stiles paused for a minute taking everything in, but Jackson made a beeline straight for Ethan. Aiden sagged with noticeable relief when he finally saw them.

            “Is he okay?” Stiles asked, nodding to where Jackson was already fussing over Ethan.

            “I don’t know.” Aiden sighed. “We tried to stop the bleeding as much as we could but he can’t put any weight on it anymore…”

            Lydia pushed past Stiles and even managed to move Jackson out of the way to take a look. She traced a finger along the edge of the bullet wound and frowned. “I think it hit the bone.”

            “What does that mean?” Aiden asked urgently.

            “The bone’s probably broken.” Lydia grimaced. “It might have stopped the bullet from going though anymore through and doing more damage.” Lydia lifted away Ethan’s hand and the bundle he had pressed against his leg-Aiden’s jacket Stiles realized when he saw it unbunched. Lydia adjusted it slightly and pressed it back against Ethan’s leg. “We need to tie this on. Increase the pressure if we’re going to try and move him…”

            Jackson was already shrugging out of his shirt. He gave Ethan a worried smile. “You’d do anything to get me out of my clothes…”

            Ethan’s laugh gave way to a quick hiss of pain as Lydia tied on Jackson’s shirt. “You know me so well…”

            Jackson eased Ethan’s arm over his shoulders. “Ready?”

            Ethan nodded grim faced. He bit back a cry as Jackson helped lift him to his feet, Aiden rushing in to grab Ethan’s other side. Scott was wheezing again, trying to help coax Isaac out of the roots.

            Lydia took a quick look over their motley crew and gave Stiles a worried look. “I hope that tunnel is close.”

            Stiles nodded slowly. “Me too.”

 

***

            With Allison’s dad breaking most of the speed limits they made good time to the Miller House. The roads were mostly empty too, easily shaving as much as ten minutes off the trip. That was the end of their good luck though. The house was swarming with armed men and women. Worse, Allison could still spot her friends’ cars on the street. They were still here.

            Chris eased the car to a stop a few houses away and killed the lights. With the angle the street curved at they would be mostly hidden from the house. Chris grimaced. “Call the Sheriff back- we have to meet somewhere else.”

            “What?” Allison stared at her father in shock. “My friends are still in there!”

            “If they were they’d be captured or dead already.”

            Allison froze. “B-but they’re not right?”

            Chris shook his head. “Look-“ He pointed out to a few of the men around the Miller property. The angle wasn’t great from here either, but as Allison watched she realized none of them were going inside the house. “-my best guess is they bolted into the woods. A couple of those guys looked like they had night vision goggles.”

            Allison hadn’t noticed. It still came as a surprise when her father started talking like that-all tactics- especially when Allison thought about where all of his expertise probably came from. “…so have you ever done anything like this?” Allison asked softly.

            Chris cocked his head studying her. “Like what?”

            “This-“ Allison waved her hand out taking everything in. “Hunted people through the woods like animals…”

            “Would it bother you if I had?”

            Allison looked at him, her mouth agape. “You have to ask?”

            Chris sighed. “I’ve done plenty I’m not proud of sweetie…but this…” He shook his head. “This is beyond me.”

            Allison felt a touch better to hear him say it. But it still felt like clutching just one shard of what had once been a perfect picture. “But mom doesn’t feel that way…”

            Her father heaved another sigh. “Apparently not…”

            “Right…” Allison forced herself to swallow around the rising lump in her throat. She grabbed for her phone again. “Where should I-“ she glanced down at the screen and the small message flashing there. _No signal_. She showed it to her dad.

            “C’mon-“ he threw the car back in drive and spun them around. “Call him as soon as we’re out of range.”

            Allison nodded eyes locked on her phone. She hadn’t known what to expect, but there had been more men and women at the Miller house then she’d ever seen in the Sheriff’s station. They looked to be better armed too. The last thing they needed to do was endanger the Sheriff by sending him into that.

            _But what does that mean for my friends?_

***

            “It should be just up here then…”

            Derek was leading, Stiles and the others trudging along slowly behind him. It was a small miracle really, that none of the Argents’ men had found them yet, Stiles thought given the noise they were inevitably making, and their relatively slow progress. Stiles spared a quick glance over his shoulder. Scott seemed to be doing a little better, his breathing was less strained and he had even managed to draw a few words out of Isaac, who had seemed pretty shell-shocked since the first gunshots were fired. Ethan though, was another story. He’d lost a decent amount of blood at this point, even with Lydia’s makeshift bandage and tourniquet. Ethan’s normally tan skin was looking pretty chalky. His pain seemed to be getting worse too, even the little jostling of his leg as Jackson and Aiden helped carry him was enough to make him grimace. Stiles was no expert, but he clearly needed some real medical attention. And for now the best plan they could come up with was to try and hide…though really they weren’t even doing that particularly well. Derek had thought he’d found the entrance twice now, only to turn up nothing. But Stiles had to give him credit-trying to track down a hidden entrance to a tunnel he’d maybe seen twice, in the dark no less had to be a challenge. Stiles could only hope Derek was right this time. Otherwise the Argents’ men might become the least of their worries…

            Derek hopped over a small ridge and finally smiled, which Stiles had to hope was a good sign.

            “This is it?”

            Derek nodded. He ran his hands along the ground for a minute before finally fishing up a rusted chain. Derek gave it a hard yank. The metal groaned loudly enough to make Stiles nervous, but bit-by-bit a cleverly disguised piece of the forest floor pulled back, revealing a darkened stairwell underneath. Stiles took a deep breath. _Well it wasn’t exactly the Four Seasons but it would have to do._ And really seeing how pleased with himself Derek seemed to be for finding it, Stiles couldn’t help but smile.

            “Alright. Well-“ Stiles shrugged. “Everybody in I guess.”

            Jackson and Aiden started forward with Ethan, Lydia and Scott behind them, but Isaac balked almost immediately.

            Stiles frowned. “What’s wrong?”

            Isaac just shook his head. “I-i... I can’t…”

            “We need to hurry and close this up.” Derek tried to nudge Isaac forward. “Come on-“

            Isaac shook his head again frantically and bolted a few steps away.

            Jackson groaned. “Lahey-“

            “Jackson relax.” Aiden twisted around as best he could while still supporting Ethan. “What if we left it open Isaac? There’d still be a little light. We wouldn’t be locked in or anything…”

            Lydia frowned. “So we’re just going to stay here? Shouldn’t we go _through_ the tunnel?”

            Derek shrugged. “I don’t know. No one’s used this for years. And after-after the fire and everything else…” He shrugged again. “I’m not even sure it’s still open all the way.”

            Stiles sighed. “Look-“

            He broke off suddenly as a howl echoed through the woods. They were out of time.

 

***

            “-and I want a perimeter set up around this whole area.” Kate said circling a large portion of the Beacon Hills preserve on the map in front of her. “The last thing we need is some curious local wandering in and seeing something they shouldn’t.”

            “Yes ma’am.” One of the men gave her a brisk nod and rushed out to deliver her orders.

            Kate had taken over the operation as soon as she arrived at the Miller house. Woodward was heading up the search, making the necessary arrangements to bring this ridiculous farce to a close. Kate Argent did _not_ like being made a fool of, and these stupid teenagers had been a thorn in her side for too long now. Better to just end this all tonight-bury it and salt the earth to make sure these annoying loose ends never saw the light of day again. Kate stared at the map in front of her thinking. They were out there somewhere, hiding. But they’d find them soon enough…

            Another one of her men ran into the tent that was her makeshift command center tonight. Apparently it was supposed to rain later, though personally Kate hoped they’d have this all wrapped up well before that happened. “What is it?” She barked.

            “Ma’am there’s someone here to see you-“

            Kate whipped around. “Who thinks they can just-“

            “Now, now Katie…is that anyway to talk to your father?” Gerard smiled coldly as he pushed past the tent flaps.

            Kate jerked her head at the random foot soldier still in the room. “Go.” The man jogged away quickly, leaving Kate to study her father. “What made you come down here yourself? I told you I have this handled.”

            “Oh like you handled the Hale fire? Or that reckless move you made with Barrow?” Gerard’s voice dripped with scorn. “No. No mistakes tonight. Your fool of a brother has it in his head to stop this. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

            “Chris?” Kate frowned. “He hasn’t been here.”

            “Good.” Gerard eased himself into the chair behind the table Kate was using, in one move effectively staging her as reporting to him. “What about police chatter?”

            “We’ve been monitoring the radio channels.” Kate said briskly. Nothing connecting to us.”

            “Let’s keep it that way.” Gerard turned to the map on the table. “Now tell me-“

            “Sir!” A woman ran up to the tent smiling. “Sir we have them. Woodward’s dogs have the scent.”

            Gerard grinned. “Then what are we waiting for?” He nodded to Kate. “Time you finally fixed your mistakes.”

            Kate nodded and cocked her gun. “With pleasure.”

 

***

            _Damn it. Damn it. Damn it._ Stiles cursed as the barking of dogs got progressively closer. It didn’t even matter at this point if they closed the tunnel or not. Stiles was at a loss for words. Jackson and Aiden eased Ethan down against one wall of the tunnel, and Aiden picked up his stick again spinning it once. Stiles supposed it might provide some brief help against a dog but he doubted the wood could stop any bullets. As the dogs got even louder the others closed ranks, providing as much feeble cover as they could for Ethan and Isaac who was couched down next to him and in no shape for a stand off. Stiles didn’t miss the way Derek had inched himself a half step in front of Stiles. Stiles raked his brain trying to think of something-anything. But no ideas came to mind, and Stiles was just left wondering what he could possible say to his friends. It had been his stupid plan that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

            “Guys-“

            He never got the chance to finish. Two dogs came bounding over the horizon, Woodward and at least two others following close behind. Stiles’ eyes went wide as the dogs rushed straight towards him. Next to him Aiden wound up, ready to swing.

            “No wait!” the dogs tackled Stiles and promptly began licking his face. The baffled expressions on his friends’ faces almost made the whole situation worth it. Almost. Stiles climbed back to his feet and scratched the dogs behind their ears. “Hey Tucker. Ace. You guys being good boys?”

            Woodward and the others- Kate Argent, and a man Stiles vaguely recognized from the Hale funeral as Allison’s grandfather Gerard- made their way slowly down to the clearing, seeming just as confused by the dogs response as Stiles’ friends.

            “You’re using the Sheriff department’s dogs dumb ass.” Stiles called out with a confidence he didn’t even come close to feeling. “I’ve been playing with these guys since they were puppies. Who did you think used to sneak them all those treats?”

            “They did their job well enough leading us here.” Kate smiled wickedly when she caught sight of Derek. “Hiding in what’s left of your house huh? Should have known you’d be here.”

            Derek snarled. “I can’t believe you’d-“

            “Please.” Kate leveled her gun at Derek’s head. “Believe it. You whole family was a pain for years. Me being with you was just a convenient way to keep tabs on your mom’s files. I’d have iced all of you at a moment’ notice.” She smiled wider. “Though in the end really the flames looked better on video don’t you think?” Kate laughed. “But no hard feelings on how things went down right?””

            Derek looked like he wanted nothing more then to tear Kate’s throat out himself. He made to take a step forward but Stiles stopped him with a hand on his chest. A gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by Kate. She cocked her head considering the two of them.

            “Then again maybe I should be the one whose offended…looks like you’re already moving on.” She eyed Stiles giving him a quick once over. Something in her look made Stiles feel the sudden need to shower. “He’s not your usual type but I suppose I can see a certain appeal…”

            “God you must really love the sound of your own voice.” Jackson snapped from somewhere behind Stiles. “Are you going to kill us or just stand there making us listen to you all night?”

            Stiles lip quirked upward a little. Jackson never changed it seemed-though Stiles wasn’t really sure encouraging Kate was the way to go. Stiles’ eyes drifted over to Woodward, and he felt a fresh wave of anger for the man who had infiltrated his dad’s department and done who knows what all over the years. “You’re a real piece of work too Woodward. You know that right? Like tier one asshole.”

            Woodward sneered. “Somehow I think I’ll survive.”

            Stiles shook his angrily. He turned towards Derek and tried to manage a small smile. “For the record I never liked that guy. Hated him from day one.” Derek actually smiled.

            “Enough of this!” Gerard snapped. “End it!”

            “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” A voice called out.

            A half dozen sheriff deputies came up out of the forest. Stiles spotted Parrish, Tara, and a few others he knew. Parrish still looked a little green around the edges, but mostly he and all the others looked pissed. They all had their guns out and leveled straight at the Argents and Woodward. And coming up behind them all-

            “Offf!” Stiles grunted as his dad grabbed him in the tightest bear hug known to man. Behind his dad Allison and Chris Argent of all people were making their way down to the tunnel mouth.

            “I’m so glad you’re okay!” The Sheriff pulled back from the hug to shake a finger in Stiles’ face. “You ever do anything this stupid again I’ll kill you myself. What have I told you about getting involved in cases?”

            “Not to.” Stiles said, watching as behind him Parrish and the others handcuffed the Argents and Woodward and read them their rights. “How did you find us?”

            Chris Argent stepped forward. “I remembered Kate mentioning the Hale house had tunnels underneath it. Those plans were still on file with the city. Once we knew you were in the woods this seemed as good of a place to look as any.”

            “Well I’m glad you did.” Stiles nodded to Allison who was hanging back awkwardly from the rest of the group. “Ethan’s going to need medical attention…”

            His dad nodded. “Ambulances are already on their way.”

            Up the hill a bit Gerard laughed. “You really think this is over? I have more men outside these woods than you have in your whole department.”

            “Oh believe me I’m aware.” The Sheriff smiled. He clicked on his radio. “How are things going out there Agent McCall?”

            “Just finishing up now.” The response was almost immediate. “You’re clear to head out this way.”

            Stiles shook his head in amazement. Only the Argents and a threat to both Scott and Stiles could be enough to get his dad and Scott’s on the same page.

            They started moving, slowly on account of the handcuffed prisoners and Ethan’s leg. Derek offered Stiles a hand up when they came to the edge of the clearing-a move which earned them both pointed looks from the Sheriff. When they got back to the Miller house it was awash in red and blue lights, dozens of FBI agents escorting their own prisoners to vans. The Sheriff insisted that paramedics check them all out. Ethan was quickly loaded up in an ambulance, Aiden and Jackson both insisting on riding with him. Stiles had a feeling the Argents could be looking at a nasty civil case on top of their criminal one when Deucalion heard about what had happened.

            A paramedic sat Stiles down in the back of another ambulance and wrapped a blanket over his shoulders. She grabbed a few bandages for the cuts on his hand and then was off to look at the others. Stiles took a breath, slowly looking around him. Stiles caught sight of Derek a little ways away being fussed over. Scott and Allison were huddled together, holding hands and both of them crying a little. Isaac was hovering just a few feet away from them. Lydia looked to be giving the man checking her over an earful about something, but from here Stiles couldn’t hear what. He sighed trying to slowly let out all the tension he’d been carrying since he first saw that message in Derek’s phone. The Argents were going down. His friends were safe. It was finally over.


	10. Chapter 10

_Three Months Later…_

            Stiles tapped his foot quickly, staring at the clock and willing it to move just a little faster. Only a few more minutes and it would officially be the weekend. Stiles sighed jealously as the teacher let Ethan and Jackson leave a few minutes early. Ethan was still on crutches, though he was on track to make a full recovery. Given the extra time it took to navigate the halls on the crutches teachers had started letting Ethan leave class early, and take someone else with him to help carry his books for him. And of course Ethan always picked Jackson. Though since Stiles had caught Ethan and Jackson using the extra time to make out in hallways twice now, he had his doubts on how necessary it was. Honestly the injury hardly seemed to bother Ethan at all anymore, and the only one who complained about it these days was Coach, who hadn’t stopped whining about having one of his best players side lined during lacrosse season.

            “-so for next week I want you all to read chapters six and seven alright? We’ll start our discussion of them on Monday…”

            The bell finally rang, and Stiles took off like a shot racing through the crowd of other students to get to his locker. He dialed in his combination on autopilot and started shoving the books he needed in his backpack as fast as he could.

            “Someone’s in a hurry.” Allison gave Stiles a small smile and leaned up against Scott’s locker just one down.

            Stiles grinned back, not even having to force it today. Things had been awkward for Allison at school now that the whole town knew what had really happened with her family and the Hale fire. Predictably, Allison had become something of a social pariah at school almost over night. Yet despite seeing and experiencing some of the destruction the Argents had wrought first hand, Lydia and Scott had rallied their friend group around Allison without question. The first week back they’d all gotten a few strange looks for insisting Allison still sit with them at lunch, but eventually things settled into a kind of stalemate. Lydia, Jackson and the twins were only more popular in the wake of everything that had happened in the woods-even Stiles’ own popularity had been buoyed by his role in helping crack the case- and so long as Allison was with one of them most of their classmates seemed content to ignore her. Still, Stiles knew from Scott that some people were still giving her a hard time in private. Allison had deleted all of her social media accounts to try and gain back a shred of privacy and sanity, but Stiles knew things were still pretty hard for her. Stiles himself sometimes still had trouble separating his friend from the girl whose family had caused so much pain and suffering. But when it had come down to it, Allison had chosen her friends over her family, hell if she and her father hadn’t gotten his dad involved Stiles probably wouldn’t be alive right now. Still, it would be a long time before he went on any double dates with Scott and Allison.

            “I didn’t see your jeep out in the parking lot today.” Allison stood up on her tiptoes trying to catch sight of Scott amongst the seas of other bodies.

            Stiles laughed. “Roscoe stays home on Fridays.”

            As anxious as Stiles was to get moving he would have waited a few more minutes with Allison to not leave her alone, but he was spared from having to make that call by Scott’s timely arrival.

            “-anyway see you guys later!” Stiles barreled down the hallway, catching several dirty looks as he barely avoided colliding with other students. Stiles practically skipped down the front steps as he finally made his way out to the parking lot.

            And there he was- leaning up against the side of his sleek black Camero, seemingly oblivious to the world around him- _Derek Hale._ Derek Hale, Stiles’ boyfriend. His sexy college boyfriend, who was attracting plenty of appreciative attention from other students and didn’t even notice. Derek turned back to the school just as Stiles was making his way down the stairs and smiled.

            Something about Derek’s smile still made Stiles a little weak in the knees. Maybe it was that in their initial time back in each other’s lives Derek had smiled so rarely, or maybe it was that when Derek smiled now it felt like it was something special just for Stiles.

            “Hey-“ Derek pulled the passenger side door open for Stiles. “How was school?”

            “Better now that it’s over.” Stiles laughed. “You?”

            Derek shrugged. “It was fine.” Then he leaned over and gave Stiles a quick kiss on the check-which was about the extent of Derek’s PDA. As it turned out, despite the rush of craziness that had brought them together, Derek’s mother had drilled into him what she felt was proper behavior when it came to dating someone. Case in point-as Stiles slid into the passenger seat Derek took Stiles’ backpack from him and set it down in the backseat. It made Stiles smile like a goofball every time, but no matter what Stiles said Derek insisted on doing things like that for him whenever he could. Derek Hale as it turned out, was a gentleman, in spite of his leather jacket and previous bad boy vibes.

            Stiles caught sight of another bag in the back as Derek walked around to the driver’s seat, but when Stiles went to reach into it and see what it was, Derek pulled his hand back with a cheerful grin.

            “Stop.”

            “I just want to know what you got.”

            “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

            “Hmm.” Stiles pouted for a moment, but then smirked, suddenly remembering a conversation he’d had that morning. “So I was talking to Erica today…”

            “Yeah?” Derek was the picture of nonchalance as he pulled out of the parking lot. “How’s she doing?”

            “Good.” Stiles watched him carefully. “Turns out she’s getting a therapy dog. You know one of those ones that can help alert you when there’s a seizure coming?”

            Derek nodded. “That’s nice.”

            “Yeah.” Stiles said. “She’s been wanting one for ages but they’re pretty expensive and her parents were having trouble getting their insurance to cover it.”

            “Oh really? It’s nice they were able to make it work out.”

            “Uh-huh.” Stiles grinned. “It’s funny-apparently an anonymous donor put up the money for it. But you wouldn’t know anything about that right?”

            Derek coughed. “Uh-“

            “The same way you didn’t know anything about someone covering all of Ethan’s medical bills-despite Deucalion being loaded by all accounts- or another mysterious benefactor paying for Isaac’s fostering and therapy sessions?”

            Derek smiled guiltily. “So uh…she was excited about the dog though?”

            Stiles nodded. “I haven’t seen her smile that much in years. She set up a countdown on her phone till she and her family can go and pick the dog up.”

            Derek nodded. Stiles flicked his arm drawing a laugh from Derek.

            “You’re a ridiculous softy you know that?” Stiles chuckled. “Seriously all that brooding you have going on isn’t fooling anyone.”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Derek smirked.

            “Right…”

            When they finally pulled into the Stilinskis’ driveway Derek insisted on carrying both his bag and Stiles backpack. Stiles just rolled his eyes and fished out his keys to unlock the door. Once they got inside Stiles took his bag back from Derek and tossed it aimlessly on the floor. Derek meanwhile took over the kitchen, and started unpacking the bag he’d brought. Because amongst all his other talents, Derek Hale could apparently cook. And really cook too-not like when Stiles made cheap macaroni from a box or microwaved something. When Derek had first started coming over more regularly after they started dating, Stiles was pretty sure he’d been silently appalled by the Stilinkis’ eating habits. What Derek must have chalked up to a hectic week when he was briefly staying with them, was quickly confirmed as the norm- namely lots of fast food.

            Stiles flopped down onto the couch and flicked on the TV while Derek started preparing whatever it was he planned on making tonight. Stiles had tried helping once before, but had quickly been banned from his own kitchen when he nearly he took off one of his fingers with a knife.

            _“-and in other news the work on the prosecution of the Argent crime family continued today. Sources close to the case are saying they’ve gathered even more evidence against the family…”_

Besides the firsthand accounts of what had happened that night in the woods, the files Stiles had managed to sneak out of the Miller house had all been turned over to the DA’s office as they built their case. Chris Argent had struck a deal, in exchange for his testimony against his family and their empire he would be granted immunity, but put on probation for the rest of his life. He’d have to check in regularly, but at least he could still be a part of Allison’s life. As far as Stiles knew no one else from the family was speaking to Allison or Chris, Allison’s mother had gone as far as to refuse to see them both the last time they’d tried to visit her in jail. Stiles grimaced and changed the channel. The last thing he wanted to think about right now was the Argents.

            As he channel surfed aimlessly, whatever Derek was doing in the kitchen started to kick up some seriously good smells. Stiles' stomach rumbled.

            “Are you making fajitas again?”

            “Yeah.” Derek whipped his hands off on a rag and came over to sit next to Stiles. “It has to simmer but it should be ready by the time your dad gets home.”

            “Perfect.” Stiles reached down under the couch to pull out two game controllers. “That gives me just enough time to school you in Mario Kart.”

            Derek sighed, but took the controller all the same. Stiles grinned. Derek was just unequivocally bad at Mario Kart. There was no other way to say it. Like sure, Stiles had way more practice, but no matter how many times they played Derek still struggled with even the simplest maps. Today Stiles managed to coax Derek into playing a half dozen rounds, before Derek finally gave up and just watched Stiles play against the computer. After a few more courses Stiles finally called it quits, and resolved to take advantage of his dad not being home yet.

            Stiles stashed the controllers back under the couch and pushed Derek back into the armrest. He kissed Derek-Stiles’ hands finding the firm muscles in Derek’s shoulders, even as he felt Derek’s hands running down the small of his back. Stiles was tempted to push Derek’s hand a little lower, but there were lines Derek wouldn’t cross when Stiles’ dad might be home any minute. Stiles would just have to wait till they were at Derek’s tomorrow.

            A car door slamming in the driveway signaled the Sheriff’s arrival. Stiles groaned and reluctantly let Derek up. Derek started pulling the food together, and Stiles hopped up to grab plates.

            “Something smells good.” The Sheriff took a deep appreciative sniff as he walked in, and draped the belt with his gun and other equipment over the back of one of the dining room chairs, easing himself down into it with a weary sigh.

            “Derek made fajitas again.” Stiles slid a beer and a plate down to his dad.

            “Mm.” The Sheriff’s eyes lit up approvingly. “You’re getting us spoiled Derek.”

            Derek laughed. “You two should have some quality food at least once in a week.” He carried a plate of fajita shells out to the table and a big platter laden with meat and other fixings. “Dig in.”

            The Stilinski men didn’t need to be told twice, both of them piling their plates high.

            “So Derek you planning on spending the night here again?” The Sheriff asked.

            Derek nodded. “It that’s all right sir.”

            Stiles rolled his eyes. Like they didn’t do this every Friday now.

            “Of course we love having you here.” The Sheriff smiled. “But just so I’m clear-“

            “He’ll be in the guest room Dad, God we know…” Stiles grinned and started stuffing his mouth with a fajita. “Mm-it’s practically his room at this point anyway.” It was true too, while Derek might not keep much of his stuff there, with both his dorm room and local apartment, the guest room still had several sets of Derek’s clothes, and he had a toothbrush in the bathroom.

            Derek just smiled. “Thanks.”

            His father nodded and Stiles turned back to his food. Some days he just couldn’t believe this was his life now. But for all the horrible things they’d been through, the last few months had been about as close to perfect as Stiles could imagine. Sometimes good things really could come from heartache. Stiles found Derek’s hand under the table and squeezed it. Kate and the fire for all their horribleness had at least done the one thing right-they had brought Derek and Stiles together. And if they could survive crazed killers after them, and massive criminal conspiracies then they could survive anything. Stiles would fight like hell to make sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's that! I hope everybody enjoyed the story. Thanks to everyone for reading and to so many of you for all the amazing feedback. If you're interested I'd certainly love to have you check out some of my other stories too. Also I'm planning to launch an AU of Teen Wolf season 3A here pretty soon, so if that sounds like something you'd like be sure to keep an eye out for it.
> 
> Thanks again,  
> Araloth


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